Exceptions to the Rule
by werks
Summary: A post Season 8/Pre 9 Jamko story exploring our now-married lovebird's surprising determination to remain as partners on the job despite the (unwritten) but assumed NYPD regulation that such couples cannot be assigned together. That look on Frank's face when he hears about their plan inspired this piece since he is a rules guy at heart (even if there ironically isn't one) lol.
1. Chapter 1

**Exceptions to the Rule**

 _So, this is being written post season 8 finale/preseason 9 as Jamko fans are wiling away the summer still rejoicing over the announcement of our lovebird's engagement and surprising determination to remain as partners on the job despite the (unwritten) but assumed NYPD regulation that married couples could not be assigned together. That look on Frank's face when he hears about their plan inspired this piece since he is a rules guy at heart (even if there ironically isn't one) and I can only imagine going forward there will be some heavy conflict between father and son since Jamie has seemed determined as of late to push back against some of the Reagan clan expectations._

 _To those of you patiently waiting for the epilogue to "Resurgence" and a few of the other promised pieces, my apologies, everything is nearly finished but my muse has been solidly stuck in a future story dealing with Mary's death and the decades' long impact on the family along the lines of "Where the Heart Lies," and is now insisting I write this piece. So here it is with a big dose of Jamie/Eddie/Frank angst to tackle some of the issues that final family dinner raised and provide a path for 12-David to prove they are exceptions to the (non) rule before season 9 starts and the opportunity gets watered down by the usual constraints of a procedural._

 _Hopefully, once that's done, I can redirect the flow back to where it needs to be and keep things rolling over the summer hiatus with a few more posted "werks" since it's not in my nature to leave pieces undone, but I gotta go where the voices tell me to, or I lose my mojo and wind up just staring at a blank screen, lol._

 _Special thanks to lawslave, jlmayer, and Laura Louisa Lewis for their suggestions and offering to be sounding boards to bounce ideas off! You can find the lists for my two series and related stories in my profile since it helps to read them in order, and as always, I own nothing, CBS has all the rights to Blue Bloods, I merely take their characters out for a mental spin for fun!_

* * *

Chapter 1

"REAGAN, EDIT!" Desk Sergeant Carl Mathers barked out in the muster room of the 12th precinct during roll call before the first shift on an already sweltering early Monday morning as a mass of humidity and heat lingered over the city well into the beginning of September following an equally oppressive summer. After what seemed to others as a hastily conceived marriage had wrapped up a few weeks previously with an intimate, candlelight ceremony and reception attended only by family and very few, select friends, Eddie still had to remind herself to respond to her new last name after years of being referred to as "Officer Janko." So, it was with a slight delay before she snapped to attention while standing at Jamie's side as they waited to receive their assignments for the day.

"Yes, sir!" she replied and stepped forward, her shiny new nameplate offering less protection against their boss's whims than either of them had hoped when they declared a desire to remain together in the car as married partners despite the NYPD's unwritten rule against such a thing. Separated on different shifts by the no-fraternization edict which was clearly stipulated during the abbreviated engagement, thus far their return to work as a fully-wedded couple had been met with an anticipated less-than-enthusiastic manner by the brass, who like Frank, frowned upon such an arrangement. So, while the pair had been allowed to ride together on occasion after officially tying the knot in order to diffuse any insinuation of discrimination since the department lacked legal recourse, it was not a foregone conclusion they would be partnered with each other for every shift. Today it seemed like once again their request would be ignored.

"You're riding with Delman today in sector 4," the sergeant gruffly noted as he stared directly at both Eddie and Jamie while searching for even a minute facial flinch that would indicate any degree of insubordination at his orders. There was none as the disciplined pair remained staunchly professional, having promised each other both in public and private vows that there would be no retreat or surrender from this position until or unless it became apparent to either that remaining as partners both on the job and in life became untenable. Their strategy was to weather the storm without causing unnecessary waves until those above conceded based on performance that there could be exceptions made to the non-rule.

"Yes, sir!" Eddie repeated with exactly the same timbre in her voice as she unequivocally accepted her assignment and stepped back in line without so much as an unordered batting of her eyes. As much as she preferred to have her husband's back on the street at all times, at the very least, they were still assigned to the same house and shift, and that in and of itself was a small-scale victory in the more significant battle as far as they were both concerned.

"REAGAN, JAMESON!" Mathers continued with a bit of a disappointed huff when he once again failed to get the desired rise out of either of them. "As a senior officer, until Robertson returns to duty in two weeks you will be assigned to sector 2 with our newest platoon member, Dana McIntyre. She's a second-year who is joining us from the 6-2," he nodded to the far side of the formation where an unfamiliar, dark-haired, rigid-looking female officer just one-week post probation stood at attention and did nothing more than offer a sharp glance over to mark her partner's identity.

"Yes, sir!" Jamie likewise acknowledged crisply, again without a hint of defiance much to his sergeant's displeasure. Unknown to anyone else in the room, Mathers had received "unofficial" orders to test the restraints of this arrangement which had quietly trickled down the chain of command from the highest office on the fourteenth floor at 1PP through a not-so-chance meeting at a bar after hours with one Lieutenant Gormley.

"DISMISSED!" Mathers growled since he had failed to achieve his objective once more before gathering up his papers and retreating from the room, leaving the remainder of the officers finally at ease and offering a sigh of relief once the high tension departed with him.

"Whew!" fellow patrolman, Paul Delman, breathed and loosened the top button of his shirt while fanning his face with a notebook once the review was over as he stepped closer to gather up his partner for the day. "You have the boss so rattled he even forgot the obligatory vest inspection in this weather. If I would have known that, I would have left mine back in the locker. It's gonna feel like a damn sauna out there again today; I think I lost ten pounds this past month. How long do you think he has before that vein on the side of his forehead explodes?" he continued with his talkative nature and nodded back to the door Mathers had exited from before quipping. "Keep this up, and the two of you might be looking at involuntary manslaughter charges when he strokes out."

"Not our problem," Jamie assured as he gave Eddie an impish wink and slight bump on the arm for unspoken encouragement. While he had years of experience dealing with the backlash the last name of Reagan might afford on this job, she was still coming to terms with the change in her status, and while they had a strict no PDA on duty canon, that slight bit of physical contact between the two of them was enough to settle her nerves.

"All of this will blow over next week when the rookies are assigned, and he has something else to worry about."

"Doubtful," Eddie sighed just as her husband's newly assigned charge started walking over to join them. "There are at least three other senior officers who could have ridden with her; he just picked you as an excuse to break us up again," she hissed before turning on her charm to negotiate at least one desired outcome in this arrangement. "Although I guess this means I'll get to try out that new Thai place on 13th today for lunch, doesn't it, Paul?" she pleaded with her most persuasive, blue-eyed, sad, pity-me look. "Pretty please?"

"Rule of thumb number one, keep Janko's stomach happy if you want an easy day," Delman kidded as he recited a popular platoon mandate. "You may have changed your plate, but I guess the same applies, so it's Dynasty Asian for our 10-63," he conceded without a fight. "Will you two be joining us?" he directed his question to Jamie and his interim partner in a convincing maître d' voice.

"Sorry, allergic to MSG," a young Dana McIntyre commented with a starchy demeanor and no attempt to come off as friendly or accommodating to her new co-workers. "Meet you at the car?" she added with a bored look at Jamie and no further introduction before filing out of the room with the rest of the officers.

"Huh, well, at least one of us isn't going to need their AC cranked up on full blast today," Delman noted the newbie's icy bearing with sympathy after she was out of earshot. "You might even wind up with frostbite."

"Yeah, I guess this'll be fun," Jamie agreed with an unenthused sigh before he likewise turned to exit. "Take care of her today," he nodded back toward Eddie, and the two exchanged a silent promise to come back to each other in one piece at the end of the shift.

"I'd _almost_ trade ya," Paul chuckled as the trio made their way into the hall. "This one will talk my ears off. Don't know how the two of you made it this far," he called after his buddy who waved over his shoulder before disappearing around the corner at a brisk pace. "Poor guy, I feel for him. It's gonna be a long week partnered with that," he added as he turned to Eddie since they were almost the last to leave the confines of the building. "You ready to go catch some bad guys, 12-Edward? See? Our call sign is way cooler, and matches your name, anyway."

"Sounds good," Eddie agreed, and while she desired to work with Jamie, of course, riding with a good-natured Delman would make the day go quickly and was definitely an upgrade over what her husband evidently would be forced to endure.

"After you," her temporary partner indicated as he held the door for her in a gentlemanly fashion and the two came face-to-face with a tired and hot-looking Tim Welch who was returning late from an overnight patrol of his own.

"Hey, watch your backs out there today," Welch commented as he stopped to offer some prophetic advice after a harrowing shift. "Non-stop domestics all night long. It's worse than a full moon! I think the whole damn city needs this weather to break once and for all because the heat's got everyone on edge or going off their flipping rockers! Speaking of which, was that Chief McIntyre's daughter I saw walking out with Reagan?... The original Reagan," he corrected with a heavy sigh of annoyance when he heard Delman playfully clear his throat in deference to their newly renamed female counterpart. Despite their supervisors' misgivings, for the most part the majority of their fellow officers supported Jamie and Eddie's desire to remain together since nearly everyone had assumed that they had been secretly involved for years now, and there had never been a time to this point where either had let any of them down when a call went south.

"Yeah, I guess; you know her?" Eddie jumped on that admission as she felt a twinge of worry flutter through her stomach. It was one thing to hit the streets on a day like this with someone you could trust, but this McIntyre was an unknown and had not elicited any confidence thus far with her manner during their brief encounter.

"I know _of_ her," Welch hedged as he gauged just how much of that information he should share with an obviously concerned spouse. "My cousin works up at the 6-2, so it was big news when the Chief's daughter got placed there out of the academy last fall," he noted before explaining further. "McIntyre's a living legend in Brooklyn South, practically took on all the gangs between Linden and Brownsville on his own back in the good old days when he was on foot patrol at the 7-1, so everyone expected his kid to be a badass too."

"And she's not?" Eddie swallowed hard as that pang turned into more of a spasm and she nervously twirled the new ring on her finger while glancing down the way to where Jamie could be seen getting behind the wheel of an RMP with this supposed protégé and driving off to start their tour.

"Not from what my cousin said," Welch warned as he followed her gaze. "I guess a bunch of stuff got swept under the rug by the brass up there. We were talking about it the other night when I was out for beers with him and a couple of other guys in his platoon. They were so glad to be rid of her after that they bought a few rounds for the house to celebrate. Said she should have been canned during her probie period for a tendency to hang back too far when things got dicey. I had no idea she was coming here though," he frowned at the notion of their close-knit group needing to absorb such an apparently connected slacker. "I mean, I don't want to dis on a fellow cop, and maybe the _three_ TO's she burned through at the 6-2 weren't a good fit but read into that what you want. Everyone knows she used some of her daddy's juice because whenever she had a problem with one, she'd wind up assigned to another a week later with no mark on her record. If I were you, I'd give Jamie a heads up," he advised cautiously.

"I will as soon as I can talk to him alone," Eddie vowed as she anxiously chewed her lip, wanting to pull out her phone and immediately send a warning text, but afraid to do so now as she knew from experience that Jamie sometimes casually kept his device in one of the middle console cupholders of the RMP when he was not wearing a jacket to stow it in out of sight. That left it vulnerable to being read by the wrong party, potentially stirring up a hornets' nest between the son of the Police Commissioner and daughter of a powerful Chief that no one needed to contend with on top of everything else they were facing.

"Maybe we can revise our lunch plans and meet up with them somewhere else," she proposed instead while looking up at Delman with a frown. "Since she's apparently allergic to more than MSG."

"Not a problem, you name the place," her partner agreed amicably before adding another assurance which would sadly prove to be wholly untrue and threaten to undo the Reagan family's short wedded bliss within just hours. "He'll be fine until then. If there's one thing Harvard knows, it's how to handle a rook. C'mon, he won't turn his back on her until she's proven herself for… oh, maybe a minimum of three years. Thanks for the info, Tim. We'll take it from here."

###

"So, in honor of your first day here in Manhattan, you can pick the lunch stop. I'm used to my partner making those kinds of decisions for me, anyway, and she's been craving Thai like crazy all week for some reason so I'm good with changing it up," Jamie chuckled, trying to keep the atmosphere in the RMP light despite a lack of success with previous attempts at humor as they sat with the car parked in an alley, watching for violations at a problematic intersection. This newbie might be a tough egg to crack, but he was determined to see success and win her over with his usual charm and wit by the end of the day.

"I guess she likes to do that for everyone," came the caustic reply back, which although salty, was in and of itself was a small sign of success in breaking down some of those barriers. Thus far the silence on the other side of the car had been deafening as Officer Dana McIntyre had remained staunchly aloof during the first three hours of their tour and had offered very little in the way about herself except a disclosure that she too was royally NYPD-bred when Jamie commented on her last name which seemed to have been made more as a warning than a point of conversation.

"Is she really your wife? That's allowed?"

"Well, it's not _dis_ allowed exactly… at least not officially, anyway," Jamie admitted, prepared to discuss anything, even this thorn, in order to keep the weak attempt at a dialogue going. "And we've only been married for a couple of weeks. I'm willing to bet there's gonna be an addendum just as soon as the Commissioner can slide it through, but yeah, as of right now there's nothing in the patrol guide or any of the other books for that matter keeping married cops apart on the job."

"So, you're taking advantage of your father's position," Dana pointed out. "And everyone in your platoon thinks it's great… you're their hero; what a freaking double standard," she snarked turning things nasty once more as it was becoming evident with every word out of her mouth that out here on the job was the last place she wanted to be.

"Advantage? No, I wouldn't go that far," Jamie argued back, even though he had evidently struck a nerve given the level of anger reflected in that last statement. "In fact, the first thing he did when we told him about being engaged was to offer one of us a transfer as a wedding present. He's against it as much as anyone else, so we're just riding this out as long as we can."

"Or he's just putting on a show, so you aren't a big fat disappointment to his big man image while he enables you to get away with stuff no one else can. Trust me; I know the drill. Just remember, my Dad's good at that too!"

"Listen, I don't know what the deal is with your father, but that's not what this is about. Eddie and I just work as partners both ways," he insisted. "We've been together in the car over five years, and she knows me better than I do myself, plus the 12th is like a family to us, and we both wanted to stay at this house. She took the sergeants' exam when it was offered last month, so hopefully, by the time the loophole closes, one of us will be up for a promotion, and it'll be a moot point, anyway."

"You want to stay, and I'd give anything to be somewhere else. I never wanted to be a cop," the younger officer admitted with that last part under her breath so that Jamie could barely hear it although he clearly caught the gist.

"What?" he frowned, puzzled at the revelation at first when she did not answer until it became apparent he was sitting with a newly promoted officer who aspired to be anything but that and perhaps had been trying to sabotage her own advancement all along in spite of her father's demands and interference.

The sound of a text coming into his phone was the only thing that broke the strained silence between them.

"That's Ed, asking to meet for lunch, anyway. Our choice of where," he explained after a glance down to where his device sat in its usual cupholder place. He remained unsure of what else to say, or how hard he should push things since it did not seem now that this woman had any intention of trying to integrate into their platoon, much less the rest of the NYPD. She was a liability that had to be reported up the chain of command, if necessary, and that would likely generate a hell storm of its own given Chief McIntyre's reputation and determined hand in the matter.

As first rides went, this was undoubtedly one for the books, and he was not looking forward to the rest of the afternoon. Before Jamie could react any further, a call came in from Central Dispatch and interrupted the conversation.

"12-David, 10-68. Report of an open hydrant on Amsterdam and 9th causing flooding. DEP requests charges for a persistent offender."

"10-4 Central, 12-David. Show us responding," Jamie answered with an excessive sigh. An untold number of complaints of this type had been registered over recent weeks as residents sought relief from the heat with a time-honored tradition of opening the valves on the corner fire hydrants.

The need to address his partner's lack of enthusiasm about being in the seat next to him, notwithstanding, this situation had to be dealt with first, since unfortunately what was one person's fun was often disruptive or destructive for another, and the 1,000 gallons of water lost each minute often resulted in property damage or threatened the water pressure city-wide for the FDNY's fire-fighting needs.

"No one's ever happy to see us roll up on one of these on a day like this, but it's not a redline call… so definitely no lights or sirens required," Jamie started the car then immediately changed direction, driving conservatively and taking a left down the next street before turning right to Amsterdam, on route to their destination while continuing to advise his seemingly unimpressed sidekick on the subtler points of community policing since it was always in his nature to try, even those with an apparent lack of interest about learning. You never knew when the smallest teachable moment could turn someone around.

"So, with a neighborhood situation like this, the best approach is low-key, just educating them about the sprinkler tops that are available from the firehouses… still lets the kids play while restricting the flow," he tried once more to school a non-aggressive approach. "DEP probably already did that a few times, which is why they are requesting charges."

"Tell them to turn off the water, issue a summons, try not to piss anyone off… got it, not rocket science," McIntyre replied irritably.

"Okay, then," Jamie exhaled with just a hint of crossness now after failing to make inroads again as they approached the intersection. "Just follow my lead."

"Yes, sir!" came the dripping retort as Dana rolled her eyes and instead looked down and focused on a chipped nail mere seconds before all hell broke loose and nearly changed the course of multiple lives and careers in the blink of an eye and a flash of red and blue.

"SHIT! LOOK OUT! -E HIT THAT KID! OH GOD! Call it in! 10-53! We need a bus!" Jamie shouted after he frantically jammed on the brakes hard enough to throw the car into a skidding stop, and his unprepared passenger toward the dash before her seatbelt engaged and her senses were scrambled, unable to comprehend the order of her partner's warning and the corresponding thud of a small body crashing into the front of their cruiser.

"W-what?" was her stuttered response in shock as at first glance she failed to see anything out of order in front of their windshield.

"WE HAVE A KID DOWN! Pedestrian versus auto! MCINTYRE, CALL A BUS AND BACKUP!" Jamie repeated as he tore off his seatbelt and frantically exited the vehicle, praying with all his heart in the split second it took for him to get around to the front of the car that it wouldn't be the worst-case scenario. As he feared though, the slight, crumpled form of a five-year-old boy wearing swim shorts, a blue cutoff Yankees t-shirt, and one flip-flop missing was laying still—face-up on the wet pavement and with eyes closed and unresponsive, blood already evident under his mat of dark hair and near his mouth.

"GOD! STAY WITH ME, BUDDY!" Jamie implored, becoming laser-focused on rendering first aid to the stricken child as he tore through the cargo pockets of his uniform pants pulling out whatever medical supplies he had readily available to try to staunch the bleeding from numerous gashes. A quick check of the boy's pulse had thankfully proved positive, and a small up and down rise could be seen from his chest. "PLEASE JUST STAY WITH ME, KID!" he continued to beg even while completely tuning out the rising screams of bystanders who had been alerted to the tragedy by the screech of the tires and were now rushing to surround the scene from tenements on either side of the street.

"MY BOY! ALEJANDRO!" one voice, in particular, rose above the rest as a panicking father rushed from the steps of a nearby apartment building after hearing the commotion and realizing that he had lost sight of his son among the group of children who had been playing in the spray from the illegally opened fire hydrant.

"OVER THERE! HE WAS HIT! HIT BY THE CAR! I SEEN IT HAPPEN!" a hysterical woman and other witnesses shouted from the other side of the street while pointing at the unfortunate young victim being leaned over by the equally distraught officer kneeling in front of the RMP—the only vehicle stopped on the road.

Such was Jamie's concentration on tending to the injured boy, that he never realized he was still alone outside the car with an inexperienced partner remaining fixed in her seat and offering no assistance, nor did he heard the heavy, running footsteps of an enraged father pounding up behind him, emotions fueled by fear and adrenaline at the sight of his son lying prone and bleeding in the street. There was no warning or opportunity to brace himself against the heavy hands on his shoulders meant to tear him away from the still form. Instead, the last thing Jameson Reagan's brain registered was an explosion of lights and pain as his right temple connected with the push bar in front of the RMP with substantial force before the world went black, and a likewise violent series of vicious kicks rained down on his unprotected ribs, leaving his unconscious body fighting for breath that would not come.

Almost immediately, the sound of sirens rounded the corner as backup arrived in what would soon become a large-scale NYPD response and a city-wide pressure point; the first car summoned in the form of 12-Edward and a spouse who was going to have to make split-second decisions on how she handled the tense situation with her husband being the officer down.

* * *

 _So, I wanted to set up a test for our lovebirds on the job, just as Frank inadvertently may have done. What their response is to this situation will determine whether or not they stay in the car with each other going forward, or if Jamie will even have a future in the NYPD to worry about. Next, Eddie and her partner arrive on the scene and are forced to deal with events as they are reported before things get out of hand._

 _This is a 9-chapter piece and will post on a Tues/Thurs. schedule. Also, special thanks to_ _dancinkowgirl for pointing out my 14-David boo-boo. Duh! Fixed. :)_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"No answer yet," Eddie sighed dramatically with one hand clutching her rumbling stomach. "He's literally killing me now! Doesn't he know I'm starving to death?" she added after checking her phone for at least the tenth time while she and Paul Delman were in the process of negotiating their lunch stop.

"Janko, everyone knows better than to keep you waiting for a meal, especially Reagan," Delman countered with a laugh and deliberately continued to refer to her by her former last name in an effort to keep her at ease. "I'm guessing he's busy working that big, important fire hydrant case. Tim was right; it's one of those days. We've already made three nonsense collars this morning including that guy who broke into his neighbor's apartment just to steal a tray of ice cubes out of her freezer… a criminal trespass charge for effing ice cubes. I think he might have a case for an insanity plea though; that place was like an oven. Who the hell rents a fifth-floor walkup with no air conditioning?"

"Well, it's either that or Jamie's trying to keep _her_ happy," Eddie snipped with a hint of jealousy as she correctly imagined what her husband had been up to. "I can hear him now being all nice and accommodating, trying to convince her the 12th is just one big family and she'll fit right in. Hope she never gets in my car with an attitude like that!"

"Hmm," Delman mused as his eyes twinkled. "I seem to remember everyone saying the same thing about a certain bossy, four-foot blonde no one else wanted to ride with at first either."

"Hey! I'm five-two, and that's beside the point!" Eddie huffed and rolled her eyes at the comparison. "No one ever had to question if I would have their back… except for Jamie once or twice… or maybe three times," she admitted the last part regretfully under her breath while remembering a few such sticky situations.

"No, but it took a while for you to settle in," Delman reminded. "Almost got yourself canned the first month when that guy went after you with a pipe in the alley and you screwed up on the report. You got a second chance though and came good… for the most part," he teased. "This McIntyre might do the same, especially riding with Reagan or Robertson."

"Well, I hope Sergeant Mathers doesn't make a habit of assigning them together," Eddie confessed and silently wondered if it had been such a coincidence that the Chief's daughter had wound up being transferred to their house, or if it was part of a master plan knowing Jamie's penchant for what seemed like a lost cause. Since that infamous Sunday dinner after he had nearly been killed by a vengeful hired hitman, Dante Sorrento, and she had been introduced as the future Mrs. Jameson Reagan, Frank had been outwardly supportive of their engagement and now marriage, as had the rest of the family, but it was easy to see the same could not be said for their decision to go against the NYPD's unwritten rule about partners. While Eddie wasn't looking to cause any discord with her new father-in-law, she wasn't about to duck away from it either. No retreat, no surrender was their mantra, and she intended to see it through.

"12-Edward, 10-53. Report of a child struck by a vehicle at Amsterdam and 9th, 12-David requests backup."

"10-4 Central, 12-Edward. Show us responding," Delman replied as Eddie reached over and hit their lights and siren. "See that; he _was_ busy… a pile of kids running around the street, drivers not paying attention; it happens every summer," he sighed and then gunned the vehicle a little harder while weaving his way through traffic for the next several city blocks since nothing was worse in his opinion than an incident involving a child being hurt.

"Lucky we were so close," Eddie agreed as Delman turned the final corner onto West Amsterdam, and she felt that twist in her stomach knot up once more which was initially attributed to the nature of the call, but then took on a whole new meaning when their stunned eyes lit upon the unexpected scene before them.

"Is that?… OH, HOLY CRAP! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Delman shouted and brought the RMP to a screeching halt crossway in the street as the pair spotted Alejandro Vargas, Sr. delivering one last kick against the back of a hapless blue uniformed figure on the ground before turning to pick up the equally limp form of a small child from the pavement and begin to run toward a nearby building with it in his arms.

"HEY! STOP! NYPD!" Delman immediately identified himself after drawing his weapon and leaping out of the vehicle while remaining behind the cover of the open door.

"PUT THE BOY DOWN NOW!" Eddie likewise presented herself and ordered from the other side of the car as the panicked father halted in his tracks, staring back at them with a disembodied, deer-in-the-headlights look while still clutching his son. Both officers were instantly cognizant of the growing throng of people gathering on either side of the street and lowered their weapons slightly while still keeping them at the ready until it was confirmed the suspect was unarmed.

"10-13! TWO OFFICERS DOWN! 9th and Amsterdam!" Delman called into his shoulder radio with urgency when another scan Jamie's way showed no other movement around the cruiser, and he failed to see where McIntyre was. Surely something must have happened to the rookie officer too if she had been unable to make such a call herself.

"PUT THE BOY ON THE GROUND!" Eddie repeated as she also anxiously glanced past the man for a split second to where her husband lay unmoving in a fetal position with his back to them before refocusing on the situation in front of her, hoping to contain it so they could render some help to him as quickly as possible.

"He's hurt," her voice softened as she tried to reason with the distraught and silent figure before her, referring both to Jamie and the little boy since blood was evident on his shirt and arm.

"Put him down so we can get some help."

"THAT DAMN COP HIT HIM!" came a furious voice from the side.

"STAY BACK!" Delman warned, worried this was going to get out of hand before reinforcements rolled in.

"HE DESERVED WHAT HE GOT!" came an angry chorus in reply.

"Sir, put him down," Eddie tried again in an even voice while her heart clenched at the thought of those accusations being true since something like seriously hurting a child, even if it were an accident as this undoubtedly was, would break her husband for the rest of his life, depending on how long that was. Another nervous glance at Jamie more than thirty feet away could only detect a series of gasping attempts at breath but nothing else definite about his condition.

"PUT THE BOY DOWN AND GET ON THE GROUND!" Delman ordered more forcefully and finally snapped Vargas out of his statue-like stance with a response.

"Él necesita a su madre!" the shaking father returned without obeying, thinking of nothing more than getting the child to his mother who was working in a nearby bodega. "I must take him to her!"

"Él necesita un médico," Eddie corrected and then tried once more to get the man to stand down even as a growing number of sirens could be heard responding to their call. "Por favor," she continued before holstering her gun and stepping away from the car with her hands out in front urging him to calm down.

"Janko," Delman warned as he stayed in place and once again looked for the other missing officer given the fact they were outnumbered ten to one.

"Where the hell is McIntyre?" he gritted under his breath.

"Your boy needs an ambulance… ambulancia," his partner continued as the extent of her limited Spanish was being tested in this tense situation, and she hoped he would understand. While she was well-versed in Serbian and Hungarian, Jamie was much more fluent in this language and always took charge whenever there was such a need, but in this instance that wasn't going to help anyone.

"In a minute there will be twenty police cars here… mucha policías," she advised. "You hurt an officer. If you try to take the boy away, they will stop you, and I can't let the paramedics… paramédicos come and help until the scene is secure," she pleaded as the small child was showing no sign of life except for a significant stream of blood still flowing out of his head wound.

"Put him down, surrender and we will help," she promised with every bit of a first responder and womanly sense of sincerity she could express. "Por favor, quiero ayudarlo… please, I want to help him."

"Ay!" the grieving father cried as he finally gave in and sank to his knees in front of her, gently placing his bleeding son on the ground while continuing to cradle his head.

"Okay, I need to handcuff you first. Hands behind your back… manos detrás de la espalda," Eddie explained before carefully approaching from the side and then stepping behind as Delman looked on, still squeezing the butt of his gun protectively while she placed the sobbing man in custody once he followed her commands. To his knowledge, this perp had already taken down two fellow officers and was not going to be given the opportunity to hurt a third he vowed even if it seemed like Vargas had not an ounce of strength left in his body.

"ONE SUSPECT UNDER; WE NEED THREE BUSSES HERE FORTHWITH!" he choked out into the radio just as another pair of cruisers pulled up and the four officers within poured out were immediately wholly occupied by the throng of bystanders while trying to clear the street for the ambulances to come in as the crowd began to push into their space.

"GET BACK! EVERYONE BACK!" Delman ordered again and bulled his way forward before anyone could get between him and Eddie in the ensuing chaos. "I've got him, go check on Reagan and McIntyre!" he ordered as he grabbed Vargas firmly by the arm while she instead sidled over closer to the boy.

"Paul, this kid's really bleeding!" she instead focused her attention where it was needed on the younger Alejandro, pulling out gloves and some of the clotting pads she carried in her pockets, putting much-needed pressure on the spouting head wound even as she desperately tried to see what was happening with her husband at the same time.

"JAMIE!" she cried out in the same shrill yell she'd used that day in the coffee shop when a voice told her he was in danger and that BMW driven by Dante Sorrento pulled away from the curb.

"JAMESON REAGAN, ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!"

The low groan and stretching of a single arm as it gingerly reached for his head was not all the response she had hoped for but proved to be music to her ears, anyway. "OKAY, JUST STAY STILL! I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" she immediately reversed her orders once it was established he was still among them even as she continued to stay with the child.

"REAGAN, HOLD ON!" Delman shouted when a forceful tug on Vargas' arm found only dead weight as the large, heavyset man refused to move from his knees where he was fervently praying next to his son. "I can't get him into the car by myself," he reported with the need to secure the prisoner before he could address anything else. "What the hell?" he muttered at the sight of the passenger door of Jamie's RMP opening up and the 12th's newest officer stepping out, apparently unscathed.

"What? Paul is he okay?" Eddie asked while looking back up.

"JESUS CHRIST! IT'S MCINTYRE! She was hiding in the car this whole time! You've got to be effing kidding me! GO HELP YOUR PARTNER!" he called out to the newbie as Jamie seemed to have gone unresponsive once more while she remained staring down at him in a confused manner.

Flabbergasted at what he was witnessing, Delman's free hand went to his shoulder radio again.

"CENTRAL, 12-EDWARD, WE NEED MORE UNITS AND WHERE THE HELL ARE THOSE BUSSES?!" he demanded again with urgency, wanting more capable hands at the scene, and frankly hoping he could get freed up to put that second officer down himself before anyone could stop him, or Eddie had the opportunity to get ahold of the young woman first.

"ETA less than one minute," came the voice of their trusted dispatcher who had clearly read the desperation of the situation and had already signaled for a precinct-wide response for a full contingent to arrive including all available sergeants and the shift commander as the street began to fill with emergency response vehicles.

"HERE!" Delman waved frantically as the first ambulance crew finally pulled up. "HELP THIS KID FIRST! He was hit by a car, and he's losing a lot of blood!" he directed at the two EMTs who immediately ran over with their gear.

"We've got him, officer," the first medic assured as he shoved Eddie out of the way and took over trying to staunch the flow. "Has he been unconscious the whole time?"

"Yes, since we've been here, but his father was carrying him when after we pulled up, so I'm not sure what was going on before," she reported while pushing herself back off her knees.

"He picked him up? Crap! Was he moving at all? He could have paralyzed this kid!"

"I don't know; I have to ask my…" she paused with another painful look at Jamie as her partner pulled her to her feet with a hand under her arm while she was discarding a pair of bloody gloves on the ground and prepared to finally run over and check on him.

"We have a man down too, and he's hardly responded either," Delman took over when words failed her. "He was being kicked in the back when we pulled up, and he's breathing hard."

"That's more than this boy is doing; he's in shock, I'm barely getting a pulse," the second EMT reported and made it obvious this victim's condition required all-hands-on-deck approach. "Russell, get an IV in," he ordered. "We need to secure him to a board and scoop and run or he doesn't have a chance. Second bus is just behind us. Tenth street was flooded from a blocked storm drain; they probably had to go around."

"GO, JANKO!" Delman ordered, a hand still on the senior Vargas' shoulder. "I'll get them to you as soon as they show up!"

"Okay!" Eddie's legs went weak even as she forced them to propel her over to where Jamie lay on his left flank facing the car, still virtually motionless with one arm twisted awkwardly underneath his body, although his eyelids thankfully fluttered once more when she dropped to her knees behind him.

"Hey, Jamie, I'm here. C'mon, please talk to me" she pleaded gently as her hand went to the side of his face which was already showing signs of swelling and deep bruising above his eye where he had apparently taken a severe blow. "Where are you hurt?"

"Ed?" he finally managed to rasp something intelligible although it was immediately evident they weren't out of the woods yet. Eddie felt a sense of panic at first when she saw the small pool of crimson he was lying near and the matching smears on the front of the slightly dented hood of the RMP, but a closer inspection showed no evidence any of that blood actually belonged to him. With Jamie's own first aid supplies laying ripped open and scattered around him, it was apparent to her that he had been trying to provide help to the boy here before he was injured. What puzzled her though was how the youngster had been that badly hurt with so little outward damage to the car, but she had more important things to concentrate at the moment than doing a mental accident reconstruction.

"M'head…" he moaned.

"Shh, Jamie; I know, but you're gonna be okay. Don't move; we're getting a bus in for you right now," she soothed and leaned over him, encouraged by the fact there were signs he was attempting to focus on her before she had a chance to look up and direct an intense beam of anger at the only other person around them.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" she demanded in a seething hiss, not to him, but Officer Dana McIntyre who continued to stand there motionless and blankly gawk as if she was watching a movie remotely on a screen.

"ANSWER ME! YOUR PARTNER IS DOWN, AND YOU NEVER CALLED A 10-13? WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?"

"H-he said we hit a kid," the rookie admitted in a small, shocked voice, still visibly shaking herself. "I… I never… I didn't know what to do! That man and all those people were so upset!"

"SO, YOU HID IN THE CAR INSTEAD OF HELPING? YOU'RE A COP!" Eddie shouted in fury before taking that back. "NO! FORGET I SAID THAT! YOU'RE NOT A REAL ONE, AND YOU NEVER WILL BE! I'll make sure of that no matter who your daddy is! Now, get out of my sight until the boss comes here!" she ordered before turning back to her husband, hoping he could provide some clues behind the utter chaos and tragedy this late morning call had turned into.

"Ed, what hap… I hit a kid? …" he attempted to connect those horrible dots before trailing off weakly again as he tried and failed at first to get some pressure off his aching ribcage before finally succeeding in rolling over on his back and taking a regular breath, his right arm covering his eyes and pounding head from the merciless heat and light above that felt like it was piercing his brain and making him instantly nauseous.

"Jamie, you had an accident, just don't move!" Eddie tried to explain as she deliberately glossed over the fact he was apparently attacked after hitting someone else's child and moved to shade his face from the obvious discomfort the sun was causing just as the second set of EMTs arrived and were directed their way.

"Do you remember how it happened?"

"No, wait… was it… red?" he mumbled back in a confused fashion, and she mistakenly took that reference for the blood still evident on his hands from where he had tried to help the boy. "He ran out… so fast…" he struggled to explain what sounded like a confession to the facts presented.

"Okay, Officer Reagan, and… Reagan?" the curious medic looked at their matching nameplates after he arrived and set his gear down next to Jamie's side. "Are you two…?"

"Married? Yes, this is my husband, Jamie. Please help him!" Eddie begged, in no mood to dance around that fact as she moved to the other side to give them more room. "He says his head hurts; he was unconscious for a couple of minutes; he's all mixed up, and it's hard for him to breathe. We saw him being kicked in the back when we pulled in!"

"Well, I was just going to ask if there was any relation to the Police Commissioner, but okay," the EMT commented as he began his assessment while his partner lugged the rest of their equipment over on the gurney. "Hey, John, ever heard of married cops on the job together?"

"Nope, that's a first for me too," his colleague answered.

"He's Dad," Jamie labored out before closing his eyes again and willing himself not to vomit between the pain he was experiencing from his ribs and the head injury.

"Commissioner Reagan is his father," Eddie explained further as she continued to worry after noticing that he had yet to move his left arm although he had flexed both feet and brought one knee up off the ground as he pushed his heel down trying to get enough purchase on the wet pavement to get up.

"Jamie, I told you to stay still! Now, will you please stop with the twenty-questions personal edition and help him?" she demanded with a frown while looking at the EMT.

"Actually," the experienced medic commented even as he only made Jamie's already intense migraine-level headache worse after shining an annoying light in his eyes. "That's part of the job with a head injury. He seems to remember who he is, now let's try something harder. Do you know what day it is?"

"M-Monday, I think… OW!" came the flinching but correct answer as the second EMT had turned his attention to that limp left arm and was gently repositioning it closer to his patient's side to reduce the pressure on it.

"Nothing obvious, but a possible fractured clavicle," he reported while performing a few more checks before starting to open Jamie's shirt as Eddie helped unfasten the Velcro on his vest so they could get a better look. "Lots of deep bruising over the ribs, so probably cracked a few of those too, but his chest sounds okay for now. Good thing you had some extra padding on. I bet it hurts like hell to breathe though."

"Officer Reagan, do you remember what happened?" came the next pointed question while the team continued their back-and-forth assessment. "Squeeze my hands," he ordered at the same time and noted a delayed then weakened response on the left.

"I… no, it was red, I think," Jamie repeated his mysterious insight as he tried to comply although he was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. "There was a kid? I don't 'member where..." he looked up, thoroughly confused about that point and needing some kind of confirmation as he racked his brain for a memory that would not shake loose.

"Ed, did I? Did you see it hap'n?"

"Jamie, I wasn't in the car with you today, McIntyre was," she glanced up in concern and noted that the scene remained tense with a number of angry bystanders threatening to cross a perimeter the other officers were trying to establish.

"A little retrograde amnesia… forgetting the events right around the concussion… isn't really uncommon or that big a deal; it might come back or not," the lead EMT advised as he slid a c-collar on as a precaution against a cervical injury. "His bell was rung pretty hard. So far nothing looks too serious, but the docs are going to have to check him out and make sure there isn't anything else going on. He'll get some x-rays for his ribs and shoulder and a head CT for sure. We better get out of here before things get out of hand though," he admitted as he too could read the mood on the street. "You riding in with us?" he asked as they prepared to move Jamie onto a board and into the ambulance for a trip to the emergency room.

"I… I can't," Eddie anxiously confessed as she spotted Sergeant Mathers and Lieutenant Graver arrive in their SUV and immediately head their way for a sitrep. "Jamie, God, I'm sorry, but I arrested the perp; my cuffs are on him. I… I have to stay," she added knowing protocol was for the officer's partner to accompany them, anyway, although in this case she did not dare use that word to describe McIntyre. "I swear I'll be there with you as soon as I can though."

Given the size of this response and the circumstances of a child hit by an NYPD patrol car driven by the Commissioner's son, there would no doubt be a full-scale investigation by IAB and mountains of paperwork that required all i's dotted and t's crossed or there would be hell to pay. Any break in procedure would be highlighted instantly with a thick red line circled around it and without a doubt spell the end of their time on patrol together, that was if Jamie even had a job to come back to since she knew the controversy and rabid calls for his badge something like this would stir up in the click-hungry press.

"S'okay," Jamie tried to assure even though he was barely able to feel her squeezing his hand for comfort which Eddie realized was a poor, but necessary, substitute for a kiss and hug goodbye in public, and she could see another wave of nausea come over him while the medics slid him sideways onto the board.

"M'm fine, Ed… really… just… just do the job," he continued to sputter with what amounted to an outright lie as they buckled him in.

"REAGAN!" Sergeant Mathers barked at volume as he approached with the CO, and this time Eddie's response to that last name was instantaneous as she jumped to her feet and prepared to answer the inevitable next question to the best of her ability even as her injured husband was being loaded up and taken away.

"JUST WHAT THE HELL WENT ON HERE?"

* * *

 _Poor Jamie and Eddie, this is going to be a real trial for the newlyweds' partnership going forward as they are forced to sort through their new professional and personal obligations to each other under some dire circumstances. Next, we get Frank's reaction to the reports filtering in as he is pulled into the tangled situation in multiple directions between an impatient DCPI trying to stay ahead of the press, another overprotective father and a new daughter-in-law who is about to experience some backlash from the family's no-favoritism rule the rest of the Reagans know so well._

 _Lastly, thanks so much to the awesome reviewers for the first chapter! I was happy to see this story was so well-received and like everyone else, I'm looking forward to how this actually plays out in Season 9 with so much potential conflict between Jamie/Frank and the department, not to mention their fellow cops. Married partners would be a stretch - I'm not sure I could work with the hubs in such a stressful situation (or that I would want to, lol), but I'm curious to see the direction they go. They've opened up so much for us FF writers filling in the gaps, I have to thank them. More on Thursday. :)_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Feels like something might finally break this afternoon," DCPI Garrett Moore noted as he entered his boss's office on the fourteenth floor at 1PP unannounced while pulling at an irritatingly hot collar and loosening his tie even in the relative coolness of the office space.

"Seems like a storm is building up," he added prophetically before pausing and hoping for a response which did not come. "Hope so, hell of a time for the AC to crap out in my car on the way in. When do you think this is going to end?" he tried again.

"About five minutes before winter hits," an unamused-sounding Frank noted grumpily without turning around as he scanned the hazy city below with a vapid eye from his usual thinking perch by the window.

"Good one, and probably true," Garrett tried to placate before setting his folder down and making himself at home on the couch.

"Have you forgotten how to knock?" Frank snipped at the informality of the entrance since his trusted assistant and usual keeper of the gate, Detective Abigail Baker, had banged in for the day with a sick child at home.

"No, but I called you less than two minutes ago and told you I was coming, so… what's got you so steamed this morning?" Garrett teased, still looking to lighten the mood in the room as it had been somewhat of a recurrent theme as of late to find the Commissioner in such a grumpy, introspective state especially since the news of a particular engagement and its accompanying complications had broken a few months before.

While more than happy on a personal level for his youngest and the Reagan's newest addition in Eddie who seemed to fit right into their lives like a missing puzzle piece, their decision to stay together as partners on the job had caused him nothing but worry and an unhealthy case of indigestion since the announcement of their intentions. After losing one son to the family business already and given Jamie's recent near-death encounter with a hired assassin due to his own seat as the Commissioner, he just couldn't absolve himself of the notion that this was a bad idea on many levels and would establish the wrong policy going forward—putting any such couples and the public in more danger by creating personal conflicts that might distract them on the job. As a rules guy, the thought was quite literally eating a hole through his stomach at the moment.

Now that the two were officially married and permitted to ride together again by this oversight—the lack of a simple, one-line rule missing from the patrol guide—frequent spates of insomnia like the one he experienced last night had been added to his list of aggravations which now also included a heavy dose of guilt over a somewhat backhanded attempt that had been made to deal with the problem.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," the DCPI quipped when there was no outward response to his attempted witticism.

"Let's just move on," Frank advised flatly as he finally turned around, determined to advance to something more productive rather than continue to stew over what had already been done since he was aware the first part of a slightly nefarious plan to keep the newlyweds apart on the job had already been deployed with the arrival of a freshly transferred officer this morning at the 12th precinct roll call.

When an old friend and one of his trusted Bureau Chiefs had dropped by the office the previous week and requested an expedited path out of Queens for his newly off-probation daughter who he felt was being pressured by some unreasonably high expectations in his old stomping grounds, it had been a no-brainer to decide where to send her after a quick check of her record showed an impeccably clean slate. If anyone knew how to deal with the pressure of being on the job while their father held a high office in the NYPD and could counsel a younger officer on the same, it was one J. H. Reagan. In truth though, it had been harder than he thought to face Jamie and Eddie the day before at Sunday dinner without revealing what was coming their way since the two had offered no outward complaints or concerns about their on/off mutual assignments from Sergeant Mathers during the previous two weeks, and instead talk had centered around an eventual deferred honeymoon destination and a possible search for a larger apartment once Jamie's lease was up for renewal in a few months.

Knowing he was deliberately deceiving them by going against their wishes and letting someone else do his dirty work like that had not sat well with Frank's stomach either for the rest of the day or made for a more relaxed night's sleep to follow as he discovered around 3:15 a.m. when he had finally given up on the notion and retreated downstairs to simmer at the kitchen table for a few hours before Henry would join him.

"So, what do you have for me this afternoon?" he instead turned to Garrett who had been kept out of the loop, but would no doubt be thrilled to hear the news that Officers Reagan and Reagan were being deliberately separated for at least the next two weeks since the possibility of having to explain circumstances like theirs to the press should there be an incident had the DCPI reaching for the Maalox bottle stored in his desk on more than one occasion lately too.

"We're actually pretty light today," Garrett noted as he reviewed the calendar. "Just a presser downstairs at two on the specs of the new academy class graduating this weekend. Pretty tame stuff. Nothing after that in case you want to… you know, take an early shower," he trailed off when he saw his boss's renewed frown. "Baker's off, and I thought you looked a little tired is all," he tried to explain.

"I…" Frank's admonishment was cut short when the door to the office opened without warning again, and a flustered-looking Lieutenant Sid Gormley rushed in with that look they all knew too well. So much for that quiet day.

"What is it?" Frank made the obligatory ask while feeling his gut twist in an all too familiar way.

"10-13 on Amsterdam, out of the 12th," Gormley confirmed as everyone's stomachs tightened further. "Original call was for backup at a 10-53 by 12-David for a child struck by a vehicle. When the second unit arrived, there was an additional alert for two officers down," he let that sink in for a second. "All hell's broken out down there, sir. No one knows exactly what's happened. Dispatch sent out a precinct-wide response. Lieutenant Graver is on scene trying to get me a sitrep."

"What _do_ we know?" Frank demanded sharply, thoroughly unhappy with the somewhat backward approach of his current Special Assistant which was devoid of almost all pertinent facts.

"It looks like the boy was hit by an NYPD patrol car," Gormley continued to hedge regretfully. "12-David was on a call to that location for an open hydrant… Officers Reagan and McIntyre," he added with a heavy sigh and a knowing look at Frank.

"Reagan and McIntyre," Garrett mouthed as the two other men could clearly read the almost fleeting sense of relief he felt at that admission. "Wait, which one?" he asked naively with concern once that reality and the further ramifications of what it meant sank in, then looked back and forth between Sid and Frank who seemed to be having a private conversation at that moment.

"Jameson," Frank informed him decisively instead as Gormley turned away to answer his phone.

"But how did you know?" Garrett sputtered before the familiarity of that second name hit and he realized the fact Eddie had not been in the car with her new husband did not make the situation any better, and perhaps it was far worse now considering his position and responsibilities after an incident like this. A child hit by an NYPD patrol car was a firestorm of a news story on its own but given the officer behind the wheel at the time was either a Reagan or a member of another elite department family, it was still a lose-lose proposition with little room for spin.

"MCINTYRE? As in Chief McIntyre who was here in this office last week? His daughter?"

"Yes," Frank curtly replied as he focused on the Lieutenant instead and tried to make out what information he was receiving.

"Where?" Gormley asked before turning around and listening carefully to the response since he was going to have to present it to his boss. "Alright, I'll get right back to you on that. Keep things clamped down, but make sure none of our men do anything to retaliate. The last thing we need is a riot on the six-o'clock news, understood?" he barked before hanging up.

"What's going on?" Frank tried to exact anxiously.

"What I got from Graver… two down on the scene and now en route to St. Irene's: a five-year-old boy, likely," he added with regret, knowing the raw emotions a child being hurt or God-forbid killed in that manner conjured up. "Second one is Officer Reagan. Apparently, when he was trying to render aid to the kid, the father got to him… bashed his head against the car and kicked him while he was down. _Not_ likely though," he informed with emphasis as Frank released the breath he had been holding. "Seeing stars with a probable broken arm according to the CO."

"And McIntyre?" Moore tried to pry some more information out, already attempting to formulate an official response out of what sounded like a very volatile situation.

"Not hurt but shook up… riding in on the bus with Reagan."

"And the father?" Frank prodded, feeling the same cascade of emotions that Alejandro Vargas, Sr. had with a boy down in the street of his own.

"Taken into custody without incident by Officer Edit Reagan, second unit in," Gormley advised as all three paused for a moment to consider how that might have played out and the emotions that must have been experienced by a particular young woman they had all come to know and respect for her policing skills as of late.

"Wait, Eddie was on the scene too?" Frank asked once more for confirmation as he tried to wrap his head around that fact, which initially provided him with more fodder for his position that she and Jamie should absolutely not be assigned to the same or even neighboring precincts.

"Still is, according to Graver," Gormley continued. "He's ordered her and the officer she was riding with… Delman, I think, to take the perp back to the station for booking. There's a big demonstration building up down there though. People are all up in arms over this, boss. He's asking you to authorize the SRG to come in before it gets out of hand," he added, referring to the Special Operations unit called the Strategic Response Group which was always prepared to mobilize citywide in response to civil disorders and major events with highly trained personnel and specialized equipment.

"Go," Frank agreed to that request immediately.

"Has anyone outside the department got the name of the officer behind the wheel, yet?" Garrett fidgeted, expecting his phone to begin lighting up with such a request at any second now and imagining the response when the last name matched that of the current Police Commissioner.

"Not that he knows about, but it won't take long if they haven't, everybody's got a damn phone in their hands these days," Gormley reported. "It'll be posted all over the interweb on myface, tweeter or whatever," he added in his own technological unsavvy manner.

"Boss, we've got to get ahead of this… issue a statement," Garrett advised, beginning to sweat once more at the thought of where they stood on this. "A kid left for dead in the street… they're going to be calling for blood and heads to roll. The longer we wait to release information…"

"WAIT? We just got this! There is no information yet, and just who the hell's side are you on, Garrett? No one left the scene! Sid just said our officer stopped to render aid," Frank gruffed before reaching over on his desk to grab his phone, obviously preparing to leave. "We don't have anything, and I'm not giving them something to hang us on without knowing just what happened out there. You stay here and wait for the press, but not a word to them until I give you the green light. Call my detail; we're going to talk to my officers," he advised before turning to Gormley as the two began to make their way out of the office on a beeline toward the elevator.

"And get on the line to TARU; I want whatever video they have in my hands NOW!"

###

"Alejandro Vargas, Sr., being booked for assault on a police officer," a drained-looking Edit Reagan informed the fill-in desk sergeant as she placed her prisoner's personal effects on the counter in front of her while Delman stood behind with his hand firmly on the still openly grieving father's arm as the few officers remaining in their precinct looked up without saying a word. News of the situation that had called out nearly all of their fellow platoonmates had gradually filtered back, but the details were still sketchy.

"Mathers already radioed in," the sergeant flatly replied as he began to process the arrest. "Said this guy's supposed to get the Taj Mahal treatment and a cell to himself before they start yelling about police brutality. Put him in holding one while I check for outstanding warrants, then call a CSI to document every single freckle he came in with," he ordered. "No one speaks to him or opens the gate without a witness present, and get your paperwork started before IAB shows up and pulls the two of you out."

"Yes, sir," Eddie acknowledged without any sense of accomplishment at having arrested the man who attacked her husband. Since the moment she took him into custody and all through the subsequent car ride back to the precinct, Vargas had done nothing but weep over his boy and pray ardently for him, a sentiment she understood completely, and her heart went out to him even as she likewise silently worried over Jamie. Whatever happened on that street in the minutes before she and Delman arrived, it was apparent to her at least that neither man had intended for this day to go so badly on so many levels.

"We have to put you in a cell now… una célula," she explained to her prisoner quietly. To this point, she doubted he even knew about her relationship to the man he had left lying in the street, and although Delman had been slightly more aggressive in his handling, for someone accused of purposefully inflicting harm on another officer, Vargas had been handled with kid gloves. Eddie knew though if they were reassigned, there was the possibility someone else might seek a little underhanded retribution while he was incarcerated here and was determined to prevent that if possible.

"You should call a lawyer now… Lamar a un abogado," she advised, hoping to get him processed out and to his son at the hospital before anything else could happen.

"JANKO! Has Reagan completely turned you soft?" the sergeant barked back at her as Jamie's more light-handed approach was frequently viewed as a sign of weakness by some of the older guard. "He attacked a cop… the one you swore you could protect if you kept that ride! So, if you're not going to do it, I will! This guy doesn't get any favors here! If you've read him his rights, you've done your job! Mitchell! Take over with the prisoner! You two get on that paperwork like I told you!"

"Yes, sir," she answered with regret as they were dismissed while Officer Mitchell took control of Vargas and led him away.

"Eddie, let it go," Delman warned under his breath after they stepped away from the desk, knowing she was caught up in a whole slew of emotions after the events of the last hour, and despite what had happened to Jamie seemed to feel a sense of responsibility toward Mr. Vargas. "I'll talk to Mitchell and make sure he stays square. Let's just get through the intake forms and see if the boss will let us go over to the hospital before IAB collars us here. I still can't believe the CO put McIntyre in the front of that bus instead of you!" he muttered in utter contempt for the process which seemed unfair since any other spouse within the NYPD would have been immediately notified and escorted to the hospital with lights and sirens. "They can do the interviews there if they want, and Reagan's going to be fine," he assured once more even though he knew she was very concerned given his injuries and apparent memory loss. "Why don't you call him and check in?"

"His phone wasn't on him," she recalled noticing that fact when she had helped remove Jamie's shirt with the EMT. "It's probably still in the car, so it will be part of the investigation. What if that's why he was distracted?!" she became startled at the thought. "I was bugging him about lunch! Do you think he was looking at my text when he hit the kid? What if he can't remember how it happened? Oh God, Paul! This could all be my fault!"

"Eddie, you know Reagan better than anyone. Would he have done that while he was behind the wheel on a call, even if they weren't coming in hot with lights and sirens?"

"No, never," Eddie concluded with a shake of her head and a bit of relief as she considered Jamie's rock-solid habits. "He would have known what I wanted plus he drives like a ninety-year-old granny going to church whenever he's in a neighborhood with kids out."

"Well, then the boy probably just ran out between cars at the last second; no one could have stopped in time," Delman reasoned.

"Yeah, but will it matter by then?" Eddie continued to worry. "You saw the scene when we left. And the way the press will play it up even if it was an accident…" she trailed off as the disparity of the evidence she noticed near the RMP came up once more. "It didn't make sense how the kid was hurt so bad even though the hood was hardly dented. He was laying right in front of the car, and there was blood already on it, so if Jamie hit him, how did that happen?"

"Well, he was small, so it could have been the push bar that got him. Reagan might have never seen him, but he stopped, so he had to… I don't know, I guess the accident reconstruction will show that," her partner encouraged since he too was aware that Jamie was a careful driver. "Plus, it was close to the intersection, so TARU might even have it on camera."

"Will it matter?" Eddie reiterated as she nervously chewed on her lip while they continued to work it through. "We've all seen it. Once things like this get going, somebody's going to have to be at fault to satisfy them. You know if Reverend Potter were still in town, he would be marching on 1PP already."

"Hey, the Commissioner never backed down from something like this before, has he?" Delman noted. "Especially with his kids. Detective Reagan's been up the creek with IAB and mouthpieces like Potter before… even Jamie over that whole thing when he was accused of police brutality at that demonstration when the bike guy ran into him and that tool lawyer Gerry Guererro went after his badge."

"Paul, Jamie got modified over that and sued!" Eddie remembered with a guilty conscience herself over that incident when she had left her partner hanging out to dry, more concerned with her own career at that point. "I said that I didn't see what happened! I didn't have his back then either, and he almost lost his job because his father wouldn't get involved! I think that's when some of all this started between them," she added as a corner piece of the puzzle in Jamie and Frank's now sometimes contentious relationship regarding his career fell into place.

"The only thing that saved him was a video showing it wasn't his fault," she continued. "This is the same thing!"

"Well, let's hope it works out like that again," Delman mused as he pulled a stack of forms out of a folder before standing up. "Here, you get started on these so that we can get out of here and I'll go talk to Mitchell to make sure he looks after Mr. Vargas if we're not around, okay?"

"Yeah, alright," Eddie sighed as she looked at the papers after he walked away before deciding instead to pull out her phone and thumb through the contacts to where a very new, private and exclusive number was stored under the heading of "Dad" which had been entered impishly in reference to the way she referred to the Commissioner during that first dinner and not at all how she usually addressed him informally.

It would be wrong for a regular officer to use something like that to their advantage, and no one else would ever dare to insert themselves into a situation like this, but since she had been sent back here from the scene was unable to check on her husband directly it could be argued this was the next logical step, right? Inevitably 1PP would be kept fully apprised on every aspect of the case, especially with a Reagan involved. A call from a concerned spouse would not be considered out of line given the circumstances, and if she was able to assure herself that everything including potential video evidence was being utilized, all the better. With that being said, Eddie's hand was still shaking with nerves as her finger hovered over the screen before touching it to send the call through.

"Hello?" she asked tentatively when the deep voice on the other end of the line picked up after a number of rings.

"Um, hi. It's me, Eddie."

* * *

 _Uh oh. Has Eddie crossed the line by bypassing the chain of command and calling her father-in-law directly? Will he even be willing to help? Next, Frank arrives at the hospital and is informed of Jamie's condition before getting a bit of a shock himself at the response when he requests to speak to Officer McIntyre. Where will that leave his son as the pressure on the department to name a scapegoat for this tragedy increases?_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Do we have anything from the video yet?" Frank demanded impatiently once again as he and Gormley quickly made their way through one of the rear entrances of St. Irene's hospital while being escorted front and back by the rest of the security detail. The pair paused at the information desk before being redirected down a long hallway which led toward an isolated part of the emergency department used for sensitive instances like this.

"Nothing yet, boss. I checked on the off-chance that RMP had a dashcam, but no dice… the majority of them still don't," he shrugged.

"Talk to the Mayor… it's never in the damn budget," Frank gritted as the NYPD had definitely fallen behind the times and other departments in deploying such individual technology, relying almost exclusively on an extensive network of street cams instead.

"Well, TARU says there's a working camera on that corner so the footage should be there, but they're having trouble retrieving it remotely… something about a flooded substation on the next street fritzing out their fiber lines, whatever the hell that means," Sid reported after checking the message on his phone. "Rodgers says it could be a couple of hours until they can send a tech to go over there with a lift truck and pull the files directly off the memory card… or sooner," he hedged given the unhappy, heavily mustached face that stopped to stare back at him.

"I'll tell them to get on it right away, boss."

"Do that."

"Commissioner Reagan?" a new voice inquired as a salt-and-pepper-haired man in a white coat began walking toward them before being stopped and inspected by one of the accompanying detectives then allowed to pass before he introduced himself. "Dr. Mark Weaver, Chief of the Emergency Department. I understand we've received two patients of interest to you."

"How are they, doc?"

"The boy suffered a serious closed head injury plus a deep laceration to his scalp that resulted in heavy blood loss in addition to other blunt force trauma," the older man paused with that look of regret that came with the job. "The EMTs were able to prevent him from arresting, but it's only a matter of time. He's in extremely critical condition; it doesn't look good," he summarized. "He's been put on a ventilator and other supportive measures upstairs in the PICU to give the family time to make decisions."

"And my officer?" Frank inquired with a heavy sigh knowing how that first news would affect Jamie no matter how he came out of this physically.

"Your son, Officer Reagan, is in much better shape," Chief Weaver paused to look at the chart in his hand. "I treated him personally. X-rays were negative for anything more than a few cracked ribs. His shoulder was separated and there's some nerve impingement, but that likely will heal on its own in two to four weeks with some anti-inflammatories and physical therapy. He did sustain an apparent grade three concussion with loss of consciousness and memory impairment around the time of the incident and is suffering from some confusion and nausea, but has been alert and responsive since his arrival."

"When can I see him?"

"Officer Reagan is having a precautionary CT scan right now, but he should be back in just a few minutes," Weaver advised while looking at his watch. "I'm not expecting anything too serious, but given his symptoms, even if that's clean I'd advise keeping him here for observation for at least the next 24 hours. He'll need to follow a post-concussion protocol afterward. I'll have a nurse notify you when they have him settled in a room; otherwise, the rest of your men are in the waiting area down that way," he indicated a number of uniforms that could be seen standing about before pausing to check his pager when it went off. "If you'll excuse me, I need to follow up on something with one of our pediatric surgeons."

"Thank you," Frank offered with his own fatherly sense of relief at that news as the doctor hurried off, even as he was aware of another now in custody at one of his precincts whose child was facing a much worse prognosis. Obviously given what they had been told of the boy's condition, it was critical to expedite this investigation, and if the NYPD was indeed at any fault, the Commissioner had no intention of compounding matters further and inciting greater community unrest by denying the Vargas family the opportunity to be together at this tragic time.

"Let's go see what McIntyre has to say. Who's here on point from the 12th?" he asked as Gormley looked up and identified a face familiar to him now.

"Sergeant Mathers… the short one that looks like he's about to pass a brick," the Lieutenant informed him as they approached.

"SIR! TEN-HUT!" the beleaguered sergeant brought the others to attention.

"At ease," Frank commanded as a simple glance around told him that Jamie's young, female partner-for-the-day was not present among the group. "Where's McIntyre?" he asked.

"Sir, she's…" Mathers trailed off as his demeanor remained drum-tight and he wished once again as he had a hundred times since last week that he'd never become involved in any of this behind-the-scenes political bullshit. As far as he was concerned, Reagan and Janko could ride off together into the sunset with tin cans rattling behind the RMP and a "Just Married" sign in the back window for however long they wanted since it had been clear they were an item for years and that had never caused as much grief as everyone else trying to use him to keep them apart. Now not only did he have the goddamned Police Commissioner himself staring him down here in a hospital with an injured son somewhere down the hall, but he had just been chewed out and spit back in little pieces by one unhappy Bureau Chief who was no doubt already on his way here to join the fray.

"She's in there," he pointed to what appeared to be a consultation room where Dana McIntyre could be observed through a small glass window in the door while sitting at a table with her arms crossed and jaw set. "When I got here, she told me Officer Reagan admitted to hitting the kid, then clammed up, asked for her PBA rep and refused to give any further statement without her father present," he disclosed. "Not a word since."

"That's it?" Gormley barked back. "Does she know what kind of situation we have going on out there? We need some answers!"

"Yes, sir; I believe she's aware," Mathers swallowed hard again.

"Why would she do that? It's already been confirmed that Officer Reagan was behind the wheel, so her responsibility in this would be limited, right?" Frank snapped with another glance in her direction, once again feeling like they were purposefully being left behind the eight ball here as the details of what happened after the boy was injured and Jamie was left alone and defenseless in the street had not filtered up to his level yet.

"Unless she's afraid to be the one to put the finger on him… officially," Gormley reasoned since they did not have knowledge of what the young officer had done to break the sacred partnership trust yet. "Her father probably schooled her on what happens to snitches in the NYPD… amplify that by like a thousand for a Reagan. Look, by union rules, if she asked for a rep, we can't talk to her until one gets here," he stated as if no one else was aware of that fact.

"Sergeant Mathers give us the room," Frank ordered and then waited for the other men to walk away so they could speak in private.

"We don't have time for any of this, Sid!" he huffed, clearly angered now as he looked down the hall and saw another familiar face arrive and rush their way despite his command. "I need to find out what happened on that street today, so I know what to make of it! Garrett, what the hell are you doing here?" he turned some wrath on his DCPI who seemed to have ignored some very specific directives. "I thought I told you to wait to address the reporters at 1PP!"

"They're all here already!" Moore defended as he hurried up to where they were standing, looking increasingly flustered. "In case you didn't notice, there's ten news vans parked out front, and about two hundred protesters are setting up. They've got Jamie's name, and this thing has gone viral! They want his badge, and they're demanding you drop all charges on Vargas and let the father go!"

"When hell freezes over!" Gormley argued back. "Assault on a police officer doesn't buy you a jaywalking ticket!"

"You do know what the temperature is regarding immigration in this country now, right?" Moore prompted more determinedly. "Tell me, how am I supposed to spin optics like these? The latest rumor is that that ICE already took Mr. Vargas into custody and is ready to deport him on the Commissioner's orders… Yes, I know the mayor's stance on New York being a sanctuary city, and before you ask, I checked already; Vargas and his wife, Alessandra, are Peruvian and immigrated here legally in 2010. The boy, Alejandro, Jr., was born in this very hospital in 2013. We have to make a statement and put some of the facts out! The whole city is up in arms! It's not about getting ahead of a hot story, anymore; it's trying to keep our heads out of the pot before it boils over!"

"Alright," Frank finally admitted that their backs were against the wall and there was little else that could be done about it in time. Still, he felt obliged to do something for his son before throwing him and his career to the proverbial wolves. "Five minutes," he conceded just as he noticed Jamie being wheeled off the patient elevator and into a room a few doors away with one arm in a sling and a free hand covering his eyes, either shielding them against the motion and bright lights that were exacerbating his headache or because the nature of what was happening which was making him just as sick to his stomach.

"If we give them anything, I want it to be the truth," he hedged, feeling his heart drop at that clear display of defeat which spoke volumes.

"Are you sure? If he says something that can be used against him…" Gormley jumped in.

"He won't because this is off the record; a father visiting his injured son," Frank insisted. "I just want to hear it from him first since this McIntyre is refusing to talk," he noted with another frown and nodded towards the room in which the uncooperative officer remained sequestered. "I owe him that, Sid. Get IAB and a rep down here to take her statement now and have Eddie and her partner come over to do the same. When that's done, at least she can see Jamie right away."

"But boss, the doc just said he's got a bad concussion and isn't remembering stuff right," Gormley continued to warn, thinking it was an unfair ask that would never be made of anyone else and would put the Reagans in even a worse position if that was possible. "Why can't we just run with that for now?"

"Because it's going to sound like a cop out," Moore noted ironically before walking that back when two frowns were directed in his direction as his workmates failed to see the humor in that statement. "Ahem," he cleared his throat at the pun made in bad taste since unlike everyone else, his background was not in law enforcement, but rather in business administration. "Are you sure you want to break the chain of command?" he reminded Frank of perhaps one of his greatest personal pet peeves. "Protocol would have IAB speaking to him first… or not…" he trailed off at the end of an Irish death stare.

"Five minutes and I won't compromise anything," Frank reiterated just as his phone began to ring with a tone reserved for family members only. "Eddie," he concluded after a glance at the screen before he threw the device at Gormley knowing that unlike his son, he could absolutely not afford to speak to her over the phone or in any official capacity until she had been deposed by Internal Affairs given the conflict the Vargas arrest was causing.

"Let her know what the doc said and get her over here, but that's ALL," he emphasized before turning his heel and heading for Jamie's room.

###

"No, I understand. We'll be over there in twenty minutes," Eddie acknowledged with her elbows resting on the desk while she was rubbing her temple before signing off with a not-so-sincere "Thank you," and laying her head down in sheer frustration at being apparently caught out by a superior just as Delman walked up to join her.

"Bad news?" he worried.

"Yes… no… I don't really know," Eddie sighed in defeat and guilt without looking up. "I called Jamie's dad," she admitted while purposefully playing it off like that and not what it was—a direct attempt to get through to the Police Commissioner to tell him something wasn't sitting right with this whole situation before he went ahead and let the blame for this come down on her husband like a dark curtain that would never be lifted.

"Janko!"

"No one else was telling me anything!" she defended sharply. "Has Mathers made an effort yet? Graver? Everyone's been so busy bending over backward not to show a Reagan any favoritism that Jamie isn't even being treated like a normal cop! If it were you or me before I got married, then we would at least be given the benefit of the doubt! Alright, so I knew the Commissioner would be at the hospital, but he didn't answer, anyway; I talked to Gormley instead. He said Jamie's doing okay… he has a pretty bad concussion and some cracked ribs, but his shoulder isn't broken like they thought, and he's been awake the whole time. They're going to keep him overnight for observation, and hopefully, that's all. He said they want us over there now to meet with IAB, and we can't talk to anyone else until that's done."

"What about the boy or Mr. Vargas back there?" Delman nodded toward holding.

"Nothing," Eddie admitted. "Guess that's above our pay grade too. Paul, I'm really worried; McIntyre doesn't have his back, and Jamie can't defend himself if he can't remember what happened! It could be more than his job… they can charge him with vehicular manslaughter if the kid dies, can't they? That's a felony! It's happened to cops before, hasn't it?"

"Probably not if he was on the clock and responding to a call," Delman reasoned. "All those cases I can think of were for off-duty DUI accidents, but you're getting ahead of yourself, aren't you? I'll tell the boss we've been ordered over to St. Irene's. Maybe by the time we get there, they'll have some of this figured out, okay? Keep the faith, Eddie; even if the top brass doesn't have Jamie's back, the rest of us know the kind of cop he is, and we'll stand behind him. You and I saw what was going down during that call! That rook should have never earned a badge! If she hadn't left him on his own out on that street none of this would be happening, but we'll make sure he gets a fair shake!" he vowed, determined that if nothing else that Dana McIntyre would never have the opportunity to let down any of his fellow brothers in blue again.

###

"Jameson," a familiar, deep voice beckoned from the doorway and one tired hazel eye lifted upward next to the fresh cold pack that was being held over the other side of his face as Jamie continued to battle with the throbbing effects of his concussion.

"Not a good day, huh?" Frank opened quietly with a blatantly vast understatement seeing the pain reflected back at him, and not knowing what else he could say. While he was seeking some kind of confirmation as to what occurred before letting Garrett address the press, he was duty-bound not to offer his son the same. A slight negative shake of the head was the only reply received as Jamie was just too choked up over what he had been told about the events of the morning to respond any other way, and the frustration he was feeling at not being able to recall what happened for himself was making matters worse. While the medical staff treating him since his arrival had been professional for the most part, he had caught some angry whisperings in the background that were instilling doubts, and he was now fully aware of how severely the child had been injured.

"Whatever you say to me is off the record here, son," his father continued. "The doctor told us your memory of the incident is still fuzzy, and you're badly concussed, so I'm not going to let IAB in here yet, but Garrett has to make a statement. There's a demonstration building on the street and we can't wait until all the reports are in, understand? The witness accounts we have so far indicate the boy was hit by the RMP you were driving," he prodded without revealing that information had been provided by Jamie's own partner who was now unwilling to explain herself further.

"Do you remember anything that disputes that?"

"I… no… was he wearing something red?" Jamie searched for anything that made sense out of the only recurring image that would come into his sluggish brain. "I just saw red, can't 'member anything else," he admitted in a broken voice as he took the ice pack down and revealed a nasty, deep-colored bruise radiating out from his temple that lent credence to the fact he was being truthful on that count.

"I don't know the answer to that," Frank quietly replied as it was evident his son was not looking to shrink away from his responsibilities, but honestly couldn't provide any further help.

"I…it feels like it was just roll call… you know? We were joking 'bout how hot it was and lunch, then red… and Eddie was there," Jamie continued to try and fill in the blanks without any other pieces to his morning evident. Truth be told he didn't even remember who he had been partnered with or any of their conversations including the one in which McIntyre had admitted her relation to the Chief or not wanting to be a cop in the first place.

"Ed had to cuff someone and couldn't come, then I was here... that's it."

"The father was angry," Frank was able to provide one clue since what happened after that was out of his son's control and certainly nothing he could be held accountable for. "He's the one that did this to you."

"Prob'ly deserved it then," Jamie resolved and closed his eyes as he sank back down against the pillow while the room blurred and took another stomach-churning spin. For someone to react that way after witnessing his own child being injured was pretty telling, he thought. Not much of a chance of mistaken identity or actions under those circumstances.

"We won't know for sure until TARU's able to bring up the video; there's some kind of delay. Son, you should try to get some rest," Frank's tone changed back to that of a worried father as, despite the doctor's prior assurances, Jamie did not look well at all, and whether it was from the combination of his injuries or the weight of what had come to cause them, the result was the same, and it was devastating to witness. His youngest had grown up always taking everything to heart, even things that were out of his control. It was one thing they shared in common, and today it had brought them to an awful crossroads where he had to pick between upholding his departmental responsibilities and choosing to hurt his own child. No matter the outcome, he was sure there would not be another good night's sleep for either of them for some time to come.

"Eddie's on her way over," he tried to hearten instead, hoping that would at least give Jamie something to hold onto for the moment while the rest of them got about the ugly business of making things public and moving them forward. "She'll be down as soon as she gives her statement."

"'Kay," came the forlorn reply as Jamie shut everyone else out and instead turned his thoughts to how this might affect his new marriage going forward. Certainly, it put into perspective how fleeting things could be, and there was no cause to worry anymore about bucking the system and trying to stay together in the car. Maybe his father had been right all along about that unwritten rule. If anything, it was a relief that Eddie would be spared the stinging criticism he would face, and perhaps her career aspirations would stay intact.

"Alright, I'll be back to check on you in a bit; we'll talk more later," Frank promised before turning heel when there was no further outward response as he made his way back to his assistant who was anxiously waiting for new orders while Moore was occupied on his phone a few steps away trying to coordinate a location to issue the statement.

"He can't help us, doesn't remember much of anything past roll call," Frank revealed to Gormley. "What did you get?" he nodded toward his phone as it was handed back.

"Nothing really… Eddie was just checking in to see how Jamie was doing since she had no way to call him, boss," the Lieutenant sought to cushion her intrusion which could easily be seen as crossing the line and punishable. "Mathers said he was going to keep her updated, so she was worried when he didn't reach out to her. I told her everything the doc said, and she's on her way over with Delman now."

"You're a good man, Sid," Frank thanked his assistant for looking out for the cops below him even though he had doubts that was all his new daughter-in-law wanted to say considering her rather outspoken nature which was in some ways the opposite of his more introspective son.

"She give you anything else?" he asked the former detective on the sly knowing that Gormley would have picked up on any off-handed communication she was trying to share.

"No, boss, at least not much," Sid replied since Eddie had been scared off of making any other comments but one. "The only thing she mentioned was that she hoped the boy wasn't hurt any further when his father picked him up right in front of the cruiser," he added with subtle emphasis on the last five words which might indicate the speed the car was traveling when it hit the child. "She said Vargas was anxious about that when he was being taken back to the 12th."

"What's going on here?" Garrett demanded as he stepped up and felt as if he was being excluded from a private loop again. "Are we ready to release anything or not?" he huffed.

"Only the facts as we know them, including names," Frank added regretfully wishing those could be withheld as well but knowing that information was already readily available and not being forthright with it would only damage their credibility going forward. "Tell them that the investigation is continuing while we're waiting for video evidence to be retrieved and IAB to complete their interviews. No charges will be announced until those reports have been filed."

"That's not much they don't already know," Garrett argued. "What about Vargas? It might cool things down if he's released."

"He attacked a fellow cop and put him in the hospital!" Gormley argued back from his side of things. "Just because his kid got hurt, that doesn't make him a martyr! Boss, the rank and file will go bananas if you give him a pass! Thank God he didn't have a weapon on him, or we could be looking at something worse!"

"I know that too, Sid. Get the DA to rush a bedside arraignment and have him escorted over here forthwith so he can be with his wife; keep a guard on the door," Frank conceded instead, hoping a balanced approach might appease some of their more vocal critics from either side.

"That's not a lot to work with," Garrett argued, hoping for something more definitive but knowing that was all he was going to get as he hurried away to set up the presser.

"It has to be good enough for now," Frank muttered as he watched his DCPI disappear around the corner. "Sid check where we're at with TARU and find out what color shirt the boy was wearing," he asked as one thing Jamie mentioned continued to bother him, however, there was no time to dwell on that as the elevator doors opened and a contemptuous-looking officer stepped out with a chest full of medals and made a beeline toward them.

* * *

 _Well, Eddie may have dodged a proverbial bullet there, but Jamie is still in hot water, and Frank is about to feel some of the steam from an upset father who had entrusted his only child to a Reagan. Next, Eddie and Delman provide their statements while Garrett briefs the press._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"A word with you, Commissioner?" Chief William McIntyre demanded while emerging from the consultation room after only being allowed an abbreviated conference with his daughter and her PBA representative who remained inside as the two IAB detectives moved in and began their questioning.

 _"In private?"_ he added with dripping emphasis and a disdaining look at Gormley.

"I'll just go check in with TARU again," Sid acknowledged and gladly used that as an excuse to step away and give them a modicum of space even though there was no real place to hide in the hall from the volume of what was to come.

"Just what the hell is going on here, Frank?" McIntyre hissed as the two men stood alone. "You promised me your son would look out for her, and not halfway through their first shift he throws her into a shitstorm like this? I want her name kept out of it!"

"That's not going to happen; we're not covering anything up," Frank rebuffed and took umbrage at the tone and this whole other unhinged side of the Chief which was not professional at all or respectful to his position. "My DCPI is conducting a preliminary press conference right now, and it's Commissioner, or _SIR_ if you're going to speak to me like that!"

"So, your son screws up, and my daughter gets dragged through the mud along with him?" McIntyre toned down his voice but not his approach or rhetoric. "That's your plan on dealing with this? She said he was more worried about eating lunch with his wife than taking that call!"

"We don't know anything of the sort!" Frank returned and wholly doubted something like that was true knowing his youngest and the serious manner in which he took such responsibilities. While Jamie, Eddie and a few of the other officers at the 12th might have been disciplined in the past year for playing some juvenile pranks on each other back at the house, they were always known to be all business on the street.

"We're still waiting on the video and interviews to be completed, but it might have helped sort things out a little sooner if she would have been forthright and spoke up to her CO from the start!" he argued back.

"Right, so you could use that to pin it on her instead?"

"And how the hell would that happen? Is that what you think of our department?" Frank frowned at the other man's continued insolence. "We have guidelines in place for instances like this; you helped write those with me, Bill! And now you want me to ignore them because they're not good enough for you?"

"Oh, that's right. I forgot I was dealing with the saintly Frank Reagan who's so willing to throw his own under the bus for appearance's sake! I don't buy that! You'll look for an out for your son and my daughter will be on the front line!"

"Well, you're right; you have forgotten who you're dealing with!" Frank barked back as his anger had been raised to another level now. "I don't make exceptions for family, mine or yours! IAB will run the investigation and make their recommendation when all the evidence is in, and that's how we will proceed! Now, until that happens, you will stay out of it! Gormley is on point! If I hear anything from him about you inserting yourself into this process or trying to go around it, he'll have orders to pursue disciplinary action on you through the proper channels!"

"Then you better keep to your word, Commissioner, or I'll make sure that gets out too!" McIntyre threatened before turning around to go back down the hall, slamming his hand on the side of a vending machine on the way past.

"That guy was way outta line, boss," Gormley noted as he stepped back over to where Frank had been left brewing. "He's got big brass ones to go along with those stars. Everyone knows you don't show your kids favoritism," he added.

"But he does apparently," Frank bit his lip while formulating a plan to deal with his errant Chief before getting back on a familiar track. "Sid, I want you to pull this Dana McIntyre's file… every mark from the first day she applied to the academy and see if he had any hand in it. Where are we at with everything else?"

"TARU has a guy headed over there now, probably be about forty-five minutes until they can send the footage to us," Gormley reported as he filled him in. "Detectives Bradshaw and Billings from IAB are in with McIntyre, they're the best we got, boss. Officers Reagan and Delman have arrived; they're waiting upstairs separated in two conference rooms that the hospital administrator green-lighted for us, so they don't hear Garrett's press conference."

"Good, that's good," Frank sighed as he paused to rub his face. Certainly, there was nothing good about any of this. "Anything about the boy?"

"Doesn't look like he'll make it was all I got, boss," his Lieutenant reported. "I talked to the nurse over there at the desk that was with him before they took him up to the pediatric ward. She said he had a dark blue Yankees shirt on… had to cut it off herself. Does that help anything?"

"No, no it doesn't, Sid," Frank acknowledged as he thought maybe his son had a glimmer of memory regarding what happened, but the mismatched colors certainly did not offer any such hope. "Have the detectives move on to Eddie first and then her partner. I think Jamie's going to need her in his corner as soon as possible."

###

"Officer Edit Reagan," Detective Ron Billings opened with as he and his partner entered the otherwise empty room where Eddie had been impatiently waiting alone for her interview. "I just have a few questions for you," he deliberately downplayed. "Do we need to wait for a rep?"

"No, I don't have anything to hide," Eddie expressed in a rush to get through this formality and downstairs to her husband, perhaps a little overconfident in her own actions given the fact that McIntyre had been interviewed first.

"Is that so?" his partner Detective Anthony Bradshaw replied with a sly smile that bespoke years of interrogation experience as he carefully placed his brief down on the table and pulled out a notepad and recorder. "Then we may as well get started. Before the call to Amsterdam and 9th, when was your last point of contact with Officer Jameson Reagan?"

"I… I sent him a text about fifteen minutes before?" Eddie answered to the best of her memory, surprised when the questioning started there, and not with her arrival on the scene.

"Eight," Billings corrected as he sought to make her uncomfortable and aware they already had information in hand. "What was it regarding?"

"I asked if he and his partner wanted to meet with Officer Delman and me for our meal," she revealed.

"But they were assigned several sectors away," Bradshaw noted.

"No, just one over. We're allowed to take our 63 within two blocks of our assigned command," Eddie defended. "So, we would have found a place in between."

"Did Officer Reagan reply to your text?" Billings took his turn and fished for a possible distraction that might have contributed to the incident.

"No," she answered truthfully. "And he wouldn't have if they were on a call. I've ridden with him for five years," she explained. "If you found his phone, it was probably still stored in the RMP's cupholder where he leaves it in the summer."

"But you would have no knowledge if he was distracted by reading it while behind the wheel, would you?" Billings dangled to see how far Eddie would go to defend her husband.

"No," Eddie caught on to what these men were doing and decided it would be better from now on to limit her answers as much as possible even though she really wanted to add a comment about Jamie's typical grandmotherly driving habits when responding to a non-urgent call as she could see the detective adding a lengthy note to his legal pad.

"And when you were dispatched to the scene, what did you think you would find?"

"It was a 10-53. Report of a child struck by a vehicle at Amsterdam and 9th, 12-David requested backup," she reported. "Officer Delman and I rolled expecting to be just that… the second unit in to provide support for a pedestrian accident."

"And when you arrived?"

"We saw an officer down on the ground in front of the RMP facing away with his back to us, and a large, heavyset man, approximately five-ten and thirty years of age in a white t-shirt and blue shorts kicking him in the back while a small child was lying in the street about three feet away."

"And did you know the identity of the officer down at that time?"

"Yes, it was Officer Reagan," she admitted while chewing her lip from the stress of reliving her feelings during that part of the incident on top of this interrogation. "His partner that day was a dark-haired female, Dana McIntyre, so it wasn't hard to tell."

"And did you see Officer McIntyre?"

"No," Eddie struggled to keep her voice professional even though the mere mention of the newbie's name was enough to make her fists clench and blood boil. "When we pulled up, the suspect stopped assaulting the officer, picked up the child and began to run towards the apartment building on the left side of the block. Officer Delman positioned the RMP sideways to block the street, and both he and I used it for cover as we drew our weapons. At that time, we had no knowledge of what the suspect's relationship was with the boy, or what his intentions were. We just knew that both the child and our officer appeared injured and needed medical help, so we had to secure the scene before the EMTs would be allowed in."

For the next twenty-five minutes, Eddie was grilled on every aspect of her actions involving the arrest of Alejandro Vargas, Sr. and the treatment of his son afterward. She confidently recounted each detail, and it wasn't until the questioning went beyond that to the point just before she arrived at Jamie's side that she was once again rattled by the tact the two IAB detectives took as it became apparent her husband may face blame for more than just striking the child in the street.

"And at what point did you determine Officer McIntyre's position?"

"I saw… I mean Officer Delman reported she was still in the car."

"So, you never observed that for yourself?

"No. I was kneeling down applying pressure to the boy's head wound, and she… McIntyre… was standing in front of the RMP next to Officer Reagan by the time I ran over there after the EMTs took over with the victim," Eddie admitted.

"Then it was possible Officer Delman was incorrect, and McIntyre was already down rendering aid in much the same fashion to her partner."

"NO!" Eddie balked, knowing that was wholly untrue. "Paul is a solid cop! He knows what he saw, and he ran that scene from the minute we pulled up. She never called for a 10-13 or helped us or tried to stop Mr. Vargas from assaulting Jamie… Officer Reagan!" she corrected with a flustered huff. "To be honest, she didn't do anything!"

"McIntyre had just been taken off probation, was on her first tour at a new house and reportedly told to only call a 10-85 by her senior partner who is the responsible party in this situation," Detective Billings evenly noted as he looked down at his notes, intent on addressing one point that had been emphatically brought up in his previous interview. "So perhaps it's more likely that it was Officer Reagan's lack of judgment or proper direction that contributed to this. Looking back on your record it appears you were also called out to 10-13 on your first tour out of the academy with Officer Reagan… an Officer Lori Collins who was shot in Lenox Park and then later died at the hospital."

"Yes, but…" Eddie paused and remembered that sick feeling of helplessness she'd felt kneeling over the critically injured woman. Not knowing how to respond as a green rookie and coupled with the abject fear at witnessing something like that she had failed at first to have Jamie's back there, and then again when they were assigned to guard the primary suspect in the shooting, Angelo Reed, and three fellow cops including Collin's partner, Rick Salazar, showed up for retribution.

"Did you back up your partner on that call immediately?" Billings asked.

"I… No. He told me to stay back with Collins and Officer Salazar because I hesitated," she admitted truthfully. "Officer Reagan surveyed the park for the suspect alone."

"I see. Then because Officer McIntyre reportedly was told to do the same, you said, and I quote, 'You're not a real cop, and you never will be. I'll make sure of that no matter who your daddy is,' so, is that true?" Billings looked up for emphasis. "You'll make sure of it? Was she in the car or on the street with her partner?" he continued to hammer, mixing up the events without giving Eddie a chance to organize her thoughts. "Were you a real cop that night when you first came on the force or were you threatening to use your connections to the Commissioner's office to damage her reputation for doing the same thing? Is that so you could regain the ride with Officer Reagan?"

"WHAT? NO!" Eddie countered again, stunned at his accusation. "And I was straight out of the academy on that 10-13! McIntyre is off her probation! She has another year behind the badge so should have done better! She didn't have her partner's back, and he could have been killed!" she insisted.

"Your husband could have been killed, you mean," Bradshaw inserted coolly from behind as he double-teamed her. "It's highly unusual for the NYPD to have married cops responding to the same incident, even more so two Reagans."

"So, that's what you're worried about, what my last name is now? Because I arrested that perp without incident and rendered aid to the victim before my own husband! I'm sitting here talking to you while he's lying hurt somewhere in this hospital, aren't I? I haven't even been able to go see him yet! I did everything by the book on this call!" Eddie defended as her voice raised in frustration.

"That remains to be seen," Bradshaw kept writing on his damn pad which was getting on her last nerve as he prepared to make his final point. "What was the first thing that Officer McIntyre said to you when you reached them at the car?"

"She said," Eddie paused with a hard, nervous swallow, knowing she was being forced to say these words against Jamie for a reason, perhaps as a test, so that it was part of the official record.

"She said that Officer Reagan told her 'we hit a kid,' and she didn't know what to do."

"Thank you, Officer Reagan, that will be all."

* * *

 _Poor Eddie is really taking it on the chin in this situation, but she's handling herself well for the most part. Next, she'll finally be reunited with Jamie before the video evidence surfaces, and he faces an angry verbal attack from another Vargas family member which has him ready to leave the hospital AMA._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Eddie," Garrett's surprised voice greeted her from inside the elevator when the door opened after she had been dismissed by the two detectives who were now moving on to Delman.

"Going down, I presume," Moore added and held it for her even though it was uncomfortable to share the ride given the fact that he was just returning from the press conference naming Jameson Reagan as the officer behind the wheel of the RMP that struck the child.

"Yes, finally," she replied, agitated and worried about the way she had handled the interview up here in the wing adjacent to the ER where the hospital's administrative offices and conference spaces were housed on the two floors above street level.

"Have you seen Jamie yet?" she asked, hoping that confirmation would quell some of her butterflies.

"No," Garrett answered as it was apparent she hadn't caught any of the live newscasts yet, or he was quite sure he would have received a different reaction from her. "His father spoke to him for a few minutes when they brought him back from some tests though. Are you all done with IAB?"

"Yes," she sighed, and he could tell it hadn't gone well before the door dinged and she hurried off the elevator in search of her husband as soon it opened on the proper floor.

"Officer Reagan," Lieutenant Gormley appeared to be waiting and cut her off skillfully, ushering her away from the Commissioner when she spotted Frank at the end of the hall near the nurse's station before she could rush over there to talk to him and find out where Jamie was. "This way," he informed and turned her down the opposite corridor.

"Are you all done with IAB?"

"YES!" Eddie answered with more than just a hint of unconcealed frustration at the repeated focus on that as the interview had succeeded in shaking her, and she had the distinct feeling of being handled now as the well-oiled administrative machine of the NYPD had taken over.

"And they didn't want to hear what really happened, just how they could get McIntyre off the hook!" she reported.

"We can't talk about that now, it has to go through channels… chain of command," Gormley reminded, and, like everyone else, continued to brush her concerns off as he stopped in the doorway to Jamie's unguarded room.

"I'm sure the Commissioner will be down to speak to you later when we have the video from TARU."

"Wait, so there _is_ a video?" Eddie asked hopefully, sure that would clear up some of this doubt and indeed reveal the truth behind Dana McIntyre's actions.

"Let's hope so," was all Gormley would say before he turned heel and walked away, and Eddie was finally able to turn her focus where it belonged—on her husband who was propped up on the bed in a sitting position trying to steal a forbidden peek at the flickering television mounted on the wall with one eye still covered by a cold pack and a continued splitting headache accompanying it.

"Hey," she immediately softened and hurried to his side, relieved at first to find him awake and more or less in one piece. "I'm sorry; that took forever. Are you okay?"

"It's true… it really happened, Ed," he muttered and broke down the second he felt her touch, hoping she would serve as a much-needed net to lessen the blow before he hit the rocks below.

"Oh, Jamie," Eddie wrapped her arm gently around his shoulder and gave him a hug and light kiss to the opposite side of his forehead, knowing the thought of hurting a child was ripping out a piece of his soul. "It was an accident, lambchop," she murmured. "It had to be. I just feel so bad that you have to go through all this."

"Not what Garrett is saying," he returned, and she looked up, following his gaze and realized he was watching a replay of the live press conference that had just wrapped up downstairs.

"They're naming names, telling them I'm suspended and calling for a full investigation."

"Wait, what? So, they've already made decisions like that and talked to the press?" Eddie gasped. "Delman's still being interviewed, and Gormley just told me they didn't even have the video evidence in yet!" she railed. "There's no way the accident reconstruction guys could have finished, so how could they know anything for sure?"

"He said there were witnesses," Jamie rasped, still having a hard time accepting any of this was real. "The reporters are wanting to know if I'll face vehicular manslaughter charges. They're asking if I was driving distracted, and I can't remember anything! All I see is red!"

"Jamie, I found your medical supplies ripped open on the ground; you were trying to help the boy, and he was really bleed… you were trying to help," she cut herself off and reemphasized while trying to offer him a clue. "That's probably what you are thinking of… it was bad."

"Garrett didn't deny it, so that means the kid is going to die, right? God, Ed, I can't believe this is happening!"

"Jameson Reagan! You did NOT do this on purpose!" Eddie defended while staring back at the screen, barely able to make anything out because of the low volume as he had been hiding the fact the tv was on from the nurses after being told implicitly not to watch it with a concussion. She reached for the controller and turned it up to hear that Garrett had moved on to discuss charges against the father that could include a felony indictment for attacking a first responder which brought more outrage from the crowd until he tried to downplay it. "I know you! You would never drive to a call like that at more than ten miles an hour! Please, please, Jamie, don't do this to yourself!" she begged as she could feel him getting more and more upset and he had to reach for the emesis basin from his table tray again to dry heave.

"Hey, can you help me or get the doctor?" she asked the stone-faced nurse that had just appeared in the doorway, dressed in the dark red scrubs from the hospital's surgical unit. "He's making himself sick!"

"¡QUE BUENO¡Debería vivir todos los días así por lo que ha hecho" replied the woman who started shouting that Jamie should live every day like that for what he had done in a loud, angry voice and rapid-fire Spanish that Eddie had a difficult time following. Further down the hall, Gormley and a hospital administrator began to run their way, suddenly aware that security had been breached while Jamie's door had been left unguarded.

"Wait! What did you say?" Eddie gaped back, surprised at the venom being directed at them from a staff member who was apparently happy that her husband was injured and sick.

"El bebé de mi hermana, su Alejandro cariñoso, se nos fue, ¡y le están pidiendo que les tomen su corazón para el hijo de otra persona! ¡Mientras ella esta esperando otro niño, solo tiene tres meses de embarazo! ¡Ahora el hombre en la televisión dice que llevarán a su marido a la cárcel también porque defendió a su hijo! ¡Ella perderá a los dos! ¡Preferiría atropellar a los tuyos en la calle por causarles tanto dolor"

"ARIANA!" one of the other nurses grabbed her sobbing and shaking co-worker by the shoulder and started to lead her away.

"What in almighty hell was that all about?" Gormley stopped them as Eddie and Jamie were staring back in shock for different reasons.

"Forgive her! Ariana is one of our best scrub nurses, and the boy is her nephew! Chief Weaver and the transplant coordinator approached the family about a directed donation for another sick child upstairs who is waiting for a heart. Alejandro was declared brain dead a few minutes ago when his father arrived with your officers! She's just upset!" the administrator informed him.

"Please don't get her in trouble for what she said!" another nurse joined in.

"What she said? Well, what was it?" Gormley griped at the oversight of not posting an officer at the door, although that would have not likely helped in this instance and he wondered what else could go wrong on this godforsaken day.

"Nothing. It was… nothing…" Jamie shook his aching head, forcing the room to spin again even though he had understood every word clearly and did not blame the woman for being angry at him or saying that she would just as soon run him down in the street for the pain he had caused the family. Still, there was something else his tired, off-kilter brain was working through—the color of her scrub top was so familiar—that deep, cherry apple red was the same as…

"OH, GOD!" he gasped again as suddenly his missing memory flashed back and he was acutely aware of how the accident had happened. "There was nothing! Nothing I could do!" he stuttered out just as Gormley's phone began to ring. "Ed! There was nothing!" Jamie cried out and repeated as he relived those last few seconds before impact although she did not understand what he meant by that at first either. She just assumed from his reaction though that he was more upset now that the nurse had yelled at him after only making out the part about the boy being declared brain dead and the father going to jail.

"That's TARU, they're sending the footage to Garrett's tablet! Finally, we'll get some answers here!" the Lieutenant stormed out and went back down the hall with the intention of informing Frank and his DCPI about the video and posting an officer at Jamie's door before anything else happened on his watch.

"Jamie, this isn't fair! They're not treating you right! If you were any other cop, they'd be too afraid of the union to pull this crap... naming you when they didn't even have any evidence in yet or leaving you without a guard so that someone could walk in here like that!" Eddie huffed and turned back to her husband when they were alone and noted the tears running down his face as he was overcome once more with what was happening.

"No, none of this is fair," he agreed, and his father would realize that as soon as they ran the video and saw what a hot mess this situation really was for the department. He had no doubt that Frank had a hand in keeping him from being partnered with Eddie today, and that too was going to come back to bite the Commissioner in the ass for all the reasons Eddie just pointed out. Something else the nurse said rang true though—that Mrs. Vargas was going to lose both her son and husband, not to mention another child was going to grow up without a father over this if something wasn't done, and he determined there was only one thing he could do to help.

"Ed, I want to… _have_ _to_ … go home now," he informed with a single-minded edge to his voice as he sat up and she returned a puzzled look at that turn in the conversation since it was obvious he was in no shape to do so yet. "Please, hon… I need some help. Just tell them I'm leaving and go get my clothes," he added while sitting up with his free arm braced against his aching ribs while swinging his legs over the side of the bed, unsure if he would be able to stand on his own without spinning down to the ground but determined to try.

"What? NO!" she was prepared to put her foot down and pull the wife card. "Jamie, the doctor said you need to stay for observation! You have a bad concussion… I don't even think you can see straight, so you're not going anywhere, understand? Lay back down!"

"I'm going home," he insisted with determination. "Ed… I have to," he begged. "I can't stay; it's the only thing that might make any of this right."

"Make it right?" she repeated and failed to follow. "Jamie… what…?" she trailed off trying to understand where he was going with this and why he would choose to do something so obviously detrimental to his own health.

"You can't punish yourself! That won't make any of this better!"

"I'm not, Ed. Please… just… please, trust me. I need someone to have my back on this."

"Jamie, I…" she stopped and searched his broken expression for some clue as to where this was going before she saw it—a realization in his eyes that wasn't there just minutes ago.

"You remember what happened, don't you?" she asked softly.

"Yeah. Ed, I…" he hedged, unable to explain himself in case she was later forced to testify to that fact, and in some way might undo everything he was willing to risk. "I can't say."

"Then I'll go get your Dad, so you can tell him! I know there's more to it than what they're saying, isn't there? The boy was lying too close to the car for him to be injured like that!"

"Don't bother," he replied despondently. "They'll have the video anyway, and nothing I tell them will count for anything. It's a big mess, and I just can't be here anymore. Please help me."

"Jamie, I'm really scared to do that though! What if something happens to you at home? I wouldn't know what to do!"

"It won't; I promise. The doc said he recommended that I stay overnight, but not that I had too. The scan came back clean," he assured. "I just… I _have_ to go… I can't be here for the rest of this, don't you understand? You heard what's happening upstairs, and if I stay here, it'll just make it worse for them."

"Okay, okay," she quietly finally relented to his panicked plea as frightening as that was. Her heart was breaking from his evident despair and no one else—not his so-called partner, Sergeant Mathers, Gormley, Garrett, or more importantly Frank, in either his role as father or Commissioner, had Jamie's back right now, and even his own wife had failed to protect him in that damn interview with IAB.

"I'll talk to the doctor again, and if… _only_ _if_ … he tells me you're going to be completely fine, then we'll see about going home, alright?"

"Thanks, Ed," Jamie huffed as he made the leap and struggled to stand up straight for a few seconds before sitting back down on the bed to catch his balance as she moved over to steady him.

"Think maybe you should drive," he confessed, more as a joke to ease her stress than anything else given his usual habit of taking the wheel.

"Now I know you're in bad shape," she sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder with her arms wrapped around him for support. "I'll call for a ride, but before I agree to go anywhere, I want to know what you do, so I can help. Jamie, tell me what happened out there in the car today."

###

"TARU said they just sent Garrett a link to some secure doohickey where we can view the footage," Gormley reported as he walked up to the other two men. "That was the boy's aunt… she works upstairs, and they just got the bad news," he apologetically explained the disturbance at Jamie's door. "The kid's not gonna make it. Sorry, boss."

"I heard," Frank sighed, sympathetic to the family's loss while at the same time saddled with the great responsibility of dealing with the possible city-wide reaction to it. "Let's see it."

"Pulling up the doohickey now," Garrett frowned and made light of Gormley's backwater references to technology as he quickly swiped through his programs to launch the video player. "There's the street," he noted when the scene finally loaded and came into view. "The kid must have come from over that way by the hydrant," he reasoned as the camera position offered a perfect view and they all waited with a massive pit in their stomachs knowing what was to come next.

"There he is! The blue Yankees shirt, that's gotta be him!" Gormley pointed to the image of Alejandro Vargas jumping excitedly in the water spray on the far side of the road which was lined with parked cars along the curb. Moments later the little boy inexplicably dashed between two of them in front of the slowly approaching RMP and began running across the street toward the stoop where his father was sitting, but what came next was not what they were anticipating at all.

"DAMN IT! What are we seeing here? Rerun that!" Frank ordered as they went back to repeat the sequence twice more before watching it straight through with stunned eyes to the point of Eddie and Delman's arrival and their subsequent actions. For Frank, the sight of his son lying helpless and alone in the street after he was assaulted brought his own overwhelming wave of guilt and regret as if he had done this to Jamie himself.

"Jesus Christ!" Garrett reacted as he ran his hands through his hair and wondered how the hell they were going to fix this mess. "That's as clear as day! What was McIntyre thinking? How the hell did everyone miss this?"

"It's what we're _not_ seeing that's the problem," Gormley noted accurately just before the Commissioner slammed his fist down in anger on the counter and stepped away.

* * *

 _Apologies for the late day posting - on a college campus visit that put 650 miles on the car in the last 24 hours with three teenagers, three dogs, and an anxious hubby, so now it's time for the lake and Margaritaville..._

 _Many thanks to lawslave for her linguistic assistance in this story since the Word translator only took me so far and five years of French from eons ago are of little help unless I send Eddie and Jamie to Paris for their honeymoon, and even that's questionable, lol. Next, Frank approaches Eddie with the truth about what actually took place only to find himself the one rebuffed and needing penance to make things right with the couple. Spoiler alert: prepare yourself since this following chapter takes a nasty twist at the end as the Commissioner feels guilty for his actions in forcing Jamie and Eddie apart and ironically responsible for leaving his son alone without backup._


	7. Chapter 7

_Great wind for the catamaran this morning, so again apologies for a late posting. Fair warning to those of you who do not like cliffies or intense character situations - this one gets a little tough so my advice is to skip today and wait until the next chapter posts on Tuesday and read them both together. Quick thank you to all the reviewers as I did not get a chance to respond to everyone personally while on vacation, but I sincerely appreciate all of the notes. Okay, here we go..._

* * *

Chapter 7

"Boss, we've already got half the city riled up… you show this to the press, and 35,000 cops are gonna turn on us too from the other side of it."

"I know that Sid," Frank hedged and tried to determine a way out of this departmental disaster as he reran the footage from the very beginning once more. The three men watched yet again as the Vargas boy ran out into the street directly in front of Jamie's RMP which immediately displayed its brake lights and the front end dipped as it slid to a halt just before the child was clipped by the side of a fast-moving red crossover traveling in the opposite direction. Little Alejandro was then thrown with force against the hood of the stationary patrol car before falling to the ground.

Jamie's vision of red had indeed been a significant part of the accident.

"What, are you kidding me?" Moore countered. "Why in God's name would you look a gift horse like this in the mouth? It's a perfect, clear video of an obvious hit-and-run, and it definitely wasn't one of our guys doing the hitting! This completely exonerates Officer Reagan; there's not another thing he could have done under those circumstances. What more could you ask for?"

"I'd like to go back in time before we put any of that out there, that's what!" Frank barked back, although McIntyre's actions, or lack thereof, had him wishing to revamp his own decisions from much earlier than that. "If we show this footage, then we… I… have to admit to hanging a cop out to dry in the press before there was proof, not to mention putting him with a partner who did the same in the car. If she had intervened and done her job when Jamie was kneeling down over that boy, it's entirely possible Mr. Vargas wouldn't be facing the charges he is either. Failing to back up your partner… or in my case, one of the cops underneath me will never be forgotten or forgiven! Garrett, tell me, how are we supposed to spin promoting a rookie like that out of the academy let alone taking her off probation? This is what we get for moving too fast!" he griped back in utter frustration.

"So, we traded one cluster for another?" Moore asked as he suddenly understood that the NYPD, and in particular, its Commissioner, were both going to come out of this with two black eyes no matter what was done. "If we don't show the video publicly, then what?"

"Then Jamie's innocence will never be openly confirmed, and the department will always be under suspicion… hell, even if we do show it someone will come up with a damn conspiracy theory about how it was filmed at a studio lot," Frank fretted. "I won't do that, not to my own son," he vowed while shaking his head as he saw his DCPI begin to consider that solution. "If anyone is going to take the heat for this, it's going to have to be me for bending over for the press because of his last name before we had any of the facts!"

"That might localize the reaction more to just the family," Garrett rationalized as his PR wheels began to click, although that was certainly not going to make this situation any easier on Frank. "If we make it seem like it happened because you were overcompensating since it was a Reagan… You might even come out looking better to the public that way… show that there wasn't any favoritism."

"Well, there sure as hell wasn't any of that, was there?"

"This is still bad, boss," Sid reiterated. "You'll lose face with the rank and file if they see what happened after the boy was hit… it could incite more violence toward cops, not to mention Jamie's respected in more than just his house, but this McIntyre not so much. They're gonna wonder why we took her word and how she got her badge in the first place. I reached out to her TO's at the 6-2 and got nada back. No one's talking without a rep."

"So, Bill did have a hand in pushing her through."

"Looks that way. I guess he figured he needed to grease the wheels for her."

"It's a father's place to try and protect his child, but the three of us… McIntyre, Vargas and I sure got it all the way wrong today, didn't we?" Frank admitted with a heavy inhaling sigh as he decided on the path forward. "Sid, do we have a plate on the red car?"

"Yes, sir… TARU tracked it until they got a shot of the back. Jersey plates, YPE-5143. Comes back to Mazda CX5 registered to an Alice Rockdale. Works up on Broadway at a brokerage firm. I've got detectives headed there now."

"Good. Let me know what they find, and Garrett, get another presser set up… this time I'll be taking the point," Frank ordered. "Put a screen behind me and cue the video to just before the boy steps into the street."

"I thought we weren't going to show it?" Moore balked at the notion of having yet another departmental mess stirred up with no say whatsoever in what would come out of the Commissioner's mouth.

"You're not going to fall on your sword and take responsibility for all of it, are you?"

"Just do what I say and let me know when it's ready to go," Frank continued without adding any further details as he spotted Eddie emerging from Jamie's room down the hall before she approached the counter by one of the nurse's stations. "I've got something to take care of first," he added, bringing the tablet with him for proof. If nothing else, at least he could ease his son's mind as to what had occurred, or so he thought, since like everything that day his timing was a bit off.

"Eddie," he approached his daughter-in-law carefully, certain that she had seen him coming in her peripheral vision, but unlike earlier chose to ignore him all on her own as she was paging through a stack of documents and signing off on them.

"I have some good news," he tried to hearten given the apparent strain between them.

"Oh?" she replied evenly while continuing to review the paperwork and uncharacteristically failing to make eye contact with a superior given the fact she was still in uniform.

"The video footage from TARU…"

"…shows that Jamie didn't hit that little boy, a small red SUV did, right?" Eddie finished for him before finally looking up and revealing the swollen rims and the distinct signs of crying around her eyes that she was trying to hide.

"He remembered?" Frank presumed as he rocked back on his heels, trying to gauge her reaction to this conflict between their personal and professional relationship.

"A little while ago," she affirmed quietly before continuing her task and flipping another paper over into the completed pile almost as if being dismissive, but in reality, it was taking all of the self-control she could muster not to lash out in anger over the way the situation had been handled. However, she had promised her husband that would not—could not—happen if they were going to have any chance of coming out on the other side of this still together as partners. Besides, Jamie had enough things on his bruised mind to worry about other than his new, sometimes hot-blooded Serbian wife getting into a knock-down drag-out fight in public with his father and the head of the NYPD.

"It's going to take me awhile to get used to this," she masked the true meaning of that statement with slightly gritted teeth before adding another signature to the bottom of the next form. "I still have to remember to write Reagan instead of Janko," she clarified as an excuse instead.

"So, what is all this?" Frank puzzled as it seemed like an excessive amount of paper for a hospital admission.

"We're leaving. Jamie's checking himself out AMA even though he still can't see straight enough to do this on his own, and before you ask, yes, I tried to talk him out of it," she reported before closing with a more obvious worried edge in her voice. "I guess all of this is the hospital covering their ass in case something happens to him at home. 'When to call your healthcare provider,'" she quoted one of the headlines nervously. "Have your caregiver call 911 right away if you've fallen asleep and cannot be awakened, are vomiting, have confusion or memory loss, blurred vision or a constant headache. Guess I can just check all of the above," she griped and slipped a bit in demeanor.

"Then he's not going anywhere!" Frank gruffed and shook his head at the Reagan pig-headed gene that was obviously rearing its ugly head here again. "I'll make sure of it!"

"Oh, but he is," Eddie countered as despite that promise to her husband there were some things she needed to get off her chest, respectfully, of course, considering. "You see, Jamie and I talked about our roles in this, sir," she addressed him more formally all the while maintaining the same understated tone as she explained their position the way she understood it.

"As a cop, he knows now that he didn't do anything wrong, but as a person because of what happened with Mr. Vargas, he feels guilty for being here and causing that family upstairs one more iota of grief while they're being asked to make an impossible decision," she teared up once more as the emotions of the situation got the better of her. "And as his wife and partner I promised to support him and always have his back, for better or worse, no retreat, no surrender," she repeated their familiar mantra. "So, I have to let him do this even though the thought of something happening to him scares me to death…" she trailed off and choked up before continuing. "But the fact he feels like he's still somehow responsible is worse."

"He always wants things to turn out right," Frank noted with a sigh, knowing that was Jamie's most fallible trait. "Doesn't happen, never will."

"I know, but having other people think that about him isn't helping. He told me it's part of the price for being the son of the Police Commissioner, and now that I'm his wife I have to accept extra scrutiny for appearance's sake and learn not to make a big deal out of it. Well, somehow he's able to do that, but I'm not sure I can if that interview I just gave to IAB is any example."

"We all have different parts to play, Edit," Frank sighed, understanding how difficult it was to accept the burden that having the last name of Reagan put on everyone in the family. "I wish it were different, but everyone else in the family has been forced to grow up knowing that in situations like this I can't treat them as a father would his children; I have to wear the Commissioner hat first. It's not as easy for those that chose to marry in though, and I recognize that. Linda was put in the same position as a wife and mother many times," he sadly remembered his departed daughter-in-law's reaction to several events like this, particularly when his oldest son had been set up and charged for having drugs in his car.

"It was hard for her to sit back and watch when Danny got put into a few rough spots."

"Yes, but I'm a cop and Jamie's partner too, so you can't expect me to just do that," Eddie countered. "You and the detectives from IAB believed everything McIntyre said instead of waiting to hear from Officer Delman or me. I tried, but you didn't even give me half a chance to tell you or Lieutenant Gormley about how the accident scene didn't make any sense, or how Jamie always drives in those neighborhoods on a call like that. I know it's against protocol, but if you couldn't talk to me, then at least someone should have checked with Paul first. Now that it's out, you can try to walk this back however you want, but what half the people in the city and even on the force will remember is that first press conference where the NYPD Commissioner's DCPI said it was all Jameson Reagan's fault. He'll forever be known as the cop that killed this poor boy, and that's not fair!"

"No, it's not," Frank agreed with regret over that fact. "And I'm holding another in a few minutes where I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen, but there's only so far I can push because he's my son and I can't give him preferential treatment."

"Well, then I know you don't want to listen to me as a daughter-in-law right now either because that would be favoritism too, but if nothing else, you _will_ hear from me as an officer's wife when I tell you, Commissioner, how very disappointed I am with the way the department treated my husband today," she finished with a bit more hurt evident in her voice before gathering all of the papers and handing them over to the nurse who had been the one to walk the aunt away after her outburst and couldn't help but eavesdrop on this low-toned, but obviously strained conversation.

"He's all set then, Mrs. Reagan," the now sympathetic woman informed them after hearing the whole story.

"Thank you," Eddie returned as she tried to regather her emotions before they got the better of her once more. "We'll have a car waiting downstairs at the back entrance. Could you have someone help us? He really shouldn't be walking that far, and please tell your friend we're so very sorry for her family's loss."

"Edit," Frank started again, unsure of what he could say at this point that might make things better between them, because whether or not he wanted to admit it, she had hit most of her points on the head although it was clear her concern was more with Jamie's health now than anything else.

"I can see how worried you are. Let's go talk to him. I'm his father; I can convince him to stay. Hell, I'm his boss too; I can order it."

"That won't help this time; he's already made up his mind to go. Maybe try stopping by later, Frank, I know he'll want to talk to you," she replied after looking down the hall to see Garrett urgently beckoning as he had hastily arranged to meet the press upstairs again since word had just come down about the Vargas family's decision to move forward with donating their son's organs and he was anxious to get the NYPD out ahead of it before news of the boy's death became public.

"Besides, it looks like you're going to be busy being the Commissioner for a while instead."

###

"I'll ask that you hold all questions for a moment until we're done here," Frank informed the waiting reporters after striding to the podium in the small hospital press area then pausing to take a drink of water to help his rough throat given the news he was about to deliver.

"First, I've been asked by the Vargas family to share with you the following details. At 5:02 p.m., Alejandro Angel, Jr., who just turned five-years-old this past Thursday, was pronounced upstairs with both his parents, Alessandra and Alejandro, Sr., at his bedside. On behalf of the entire NYPD and the Reagan family, I wish to express my sincere condolences on their loss and also publicly commend them for their decision to allow their son to be an organ donor. Even in this tragedy, the one thing we can hold onto today is that several other children might be saved because of this enormous act of kindness and generosity. I would also ask that you respect their privacy at this difficult time."

"Secondly," Frank started again after a deep breath when that news had been absorbed as Garrett looked nervously on. "With their permission, I am going to share a portion of the video our Technical Assistance Response Unit retrieved from one of the street cameras located on that block. Unfortunately, this was unavailable before the previous press conference due to a service outage, but as you can see," he paused to start the tape and run it through to the point just before the boy was struck before freezing the image with the red taillights of the RMP fully evident. "Officer Reagan was able to react in time and fully stop his patrol car when the child ran out in front of him. However, a red crossover traveling at a high rate of speed in the opposite direction did not. That is the vehicle which struck Alejandro and threw him onto the hood of the stationary NYPD cruiser. The driver has been positively identified as an Alice Rockdale of Bayonne, New Jersey. She has been arrested and will be charged with numerous offenses, not the least of which are DUI, a hit-and-run resulting in death, and fleeing the scene of an accident."

"Commissioner! Can we see the rest of the video?" came the first question despite his call for a moratorium until the end.

"No," Frank replied vehemently and clicked the button to turn the screen off and emphasize his point. "The family has viewed the complete footage, and unedited copies of the entire incident will be provided to the necessary legal counsels, but I will not have the last images of their son be texted, twittered or uploaded to some video service so it can haunt them from every possible angle while they are grieving. Alejandro's life is worth more than a six-second clip on the evening news or a few million views online to pad someone else's pocket," he defended.

"What about Officer Reagan or his partner? Why didn't they report this to you in the first place?"

"Officer Reagan suffered a significant concussion in the subsequent assault. He had no memory of the incident until about an hour ago. His partner was in the passenger seat looking down at that moment of impact and did not reliably witness the event," Frank reported honestly, carefully treading the line and hoping no one followed up on that angle or asked for details on Dana McIntyre. Thankfully, in this case, the reporters were more interested in the possible consequences a grieving parent might receive.

"So, what charges with the father face?"

"Mr. Vargas has been arraigned for second-degree assault on a police officer given his actions for which he expresses regret now. Ultimately, it's up to the District Attorney's office to determine how the case proceeds from here on out. Even though he was under duress, his reaction was still criminal, and he must answer for it, although as a father myself," Frank added to soften the accusation. "I understand the desire to protect one's own and the bad decisions that can sometimes result from reacting before you have the right information. Mr. Vargas was told his son had been hit by an NYPD vehicle by bystanders who only witnessed the last part of the accident, and he responded in a way that unfortunately made the situation worse for his family."

"Today I am guilty of the same," he confessed. "Because of sensitive nature of the incident and the reaction from the press and community, along with Officer Reagan's personal connection, I allowed myself to rush the process, and that resulted in bad police work on my part and the release of information that had not been substantiated. I owe more to my officers than that, even ones that share my last name. Officer Reagan is clearly innocent of any wrongdoing here, however, considering the circumstances I made the wrong assumption as did many others. Ultimately, as the PC, the buck and blame stops here. I'm the one that needs to stand behind them and have their backs, and I did not do my job here this afternoon. In an effort not to show favoritism, I did the opposite, and I sincerely regret my actions and any harm they may have caused," Frank admitted ruefully and knew in his heart that applied to his plan to keep Jamie and Eddie apart on the job as well.

"Everyone lost something today unless we use this as an example of what happens when conclusions are drawn in haste trying to beat a news cycle instead of waiting until all the facts are in. The 35,000 men and women that serve this city deserve the same due process I expect them to provide for everyone else, so from this point forward, whenever there is an incident that calls one of them into question like this, you can be damned sure I won't make the same mistake again."

###

"Oh, please, please, pretty please… I'm starving!" Eddie begged under her breath after quietly opening the door and rummaging through the apartment's sparsely packed pantry. Monday was traditionally Jamie's grocery run night, and the pickings were slim since he preferred only fresh food, but to her delight she found the prize she was looking for—an overlooked, outdated, open and likely stale half-eaten bag of Thai rice crackers to go along with the small container of Nam Prik Paochili paste she had stashed in the back of the fridge after one of their recent, and seemingly all-too-frequent, dinner dates at her favorite local Asian eatery. For some reason, her appetite for this spicy food had been insatiable for the past few weeks, and she knew her husband was growing tired of this limited menu. What was worse considering she missed lunch, the mere mention of stopping there on the way home from the hospital for takeout had elicited an instant negative visceral response as Jamie, who continued to struggle with nausea, turned ghost white at the thought and Eddie was afraid there would be a hefty addition on their Uber bill for a backseat cleanup. Thankfully that hadn't been necessary, but with him now asleep in their bed and needing constant supervision for at least the next 24-hours to make sure there weren't any further serious complications, she was desperate and scrounging for anything on hand that might satisfy her craving and not alert her husband's new, and seemingly bionic sense of smell to its presence.

A knock at the door interrupted her before she could consume even one zesty morsel.

"Damn it! Go away!" she railed while quickly getting up to answer it before whoever it was could make more of a racket and wake Jamie up from his much-needed rest. Given the well-known Reagan family penchant of hovering over their own, she assumed it would be one or likely more of her new in-laws coming to lay hands on him in one way or another and that somehow, they had circumvented the security buzzer at the front door to keep their arrival under the radar. For once she prayed that was because they came bearing gifts of noodles and chicken covered in a spicy peanut sauce.

Unfortunately, that did not appear to be the case.

"Frank," she sighed after a peek through the peephole revealed the familiar knot of a tie and imposing dark suit of her six-foot-four father-in-law. After they left and listened to the press conference in the car on the way home, Eddie had likewise regretted some of the things she said to the Commissioner who had undoubtedly been put into a difficult situation and hoped they could make amends before any of this set a further strain on their new relationship. With Jamie now home and seemingly recovering, some of her fear had waned, and she was in a much better place emotionally to discuss what happened.

"Come in, but he's finally sleeping so we have to be quiet," she greeted in a whisper after opening the door and heading back toward the kitchen to clean up.

"How's he feeling now?" the worried and tired father inquired while anxiously looking around the living room for his missing son.

"A bit better I think," Eddie reported as she stepped around to the other side of the counter before Frank moved a few things off one of the bar stools and pulled it over. "He still has a bad headache, and he's sensitive to light and smells but managed to fall asleep in bed a little while ago, so he's good until around nine. The doctor said that was okay as long as I wake him up every two hours to make sure none of his symptoms are worse. He's not supposed to be left alone at all for at least the next day or so though. After reading all those damn warnings, I was even afraid to go downstairs long enough to pick up a takeout delivery."

"Good, that's good," Frank sighed with relief as he sat down, likewise hungry after forgetting to eat all afternoon and looking exhausted himself from the stress of the day and the nightly unrest of the past several weeks. "The part about him sleeping, I mean."

"Would you like some coffee?" Eddie prodded as her father-in-law appeared to be as worn out as she felt. "I can put a pot on."

"That would be most appreciated," he acknowledged with a bit of a raised eyebrow as he spotted the questionable concoction she had been preparing before his arrival. "Is that dinner?"

"Oh, um… yes," she admitted with embarrassment before quickly snatched the mixture away before he could read the past expired by dates. "We were supposed to go for groceries tonight after work, and Jamie's kinda picky about not keeping food around the apartment that doesn't get eaten right away, so I'm still trying to get used to only buying what we need. It was this or two Oreos and a cup of cream of mushroom soup. Listen, Frank; I'm really sorry I can't offer you anything... and for everything else I said today," she added abruptly after a pause to try and clear the air. "I guess becoming a Reagan is harder than I thought."

"Don't ever apologize for standing up for what's right," Frank returned. "And that's what you did, Edit. Today I witnessed an example of one of the worst pieces of policing I have ever seen and one of the best. I'm proud of the way you handled yourself in the middle of a tough call that could have gone all the way upside down otherwise, and the compassion you showed to Mr. Vargas in spite of what happened. You did everything by the book when it counted. I'm sure you heard the second press conference… I meant every word of it. If there was anyone that failed to do their job in this, it was me."

"I know you were in a tough spot, and Jamie does too. It was just an awful day for everyone," she summarized sadly. "Especially the Vargas family. I can't get the picture of that little boy out of my head, and I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to help him."

"You did make a difference though," Frank revealed. "The doctor said without immediate attention Alejandro would have likely bled out long before he reached the hospital. Keeping him alive allowed his family time to say goodbye and someone… or several of them… had their prayers answered today when they got the call that a match was found."

"Thanks. That does actually make me feel better, and I'm sure Jamie will too when he hears," Eddie shared as those thoughts had been weighing heavily on her since bringing her husband home. "It's good to have him here though; I feel so lucky after what happened. I know he should have stayed overnight, but I'm just glad he's okay."

"Well, you might reconsider that when you see what living with a wounded Reagan pacing the walls is like, but I'm glad you're looking after him too," Frank admitted with an easier smile. "I just hope things settle down for a while after all this."

"Me too," Eddie sighed.

"You served the badge well today, and so did my son," Frank added as he was having the very same issue of focusing on the image of Jamie lying helpless in the street. "But a call like this… I'm sure we'll all have a few restless nights over this one. You say he's okay to sleep until nine," he recounted after her stomach embarrassingly rumbled aloud again. "Why don't you go get yourself a real meal and pick up some food for tomorrow. I'll sit with him until then. I'd like to talk to you both a little before I leave, or I won't rest well tonight either."

"Oh, that would be… wonderful," Eddie conceded as her cravings had done nothing but multiply ten-fold after having a whiff of the discarded dip.

"Can I get you anything? Are you sure you don't mind? I won't be long," she promised with a familiar hypervigilant tone that had always concerned him whenever it came to the thought of the couple riding together on the job, but on this day, it seemed comforting. He had little doubt that the two of them would never fail to look out for one another while still keeping to their oaths as officers after what he witnessed today. Perhaps they truly were exceptions to that long-held unwritten tenet the NYPD had always traditionally held.

"Rule of thumb number one, keep Janko's stomach happy if you want an easy day," Frank smiled as he repeated a phrase familiar to the Reagan family since this complicated blonde woman had entered their lives and gained a chair at the dinner table. "I believe you take after Danny that way. Nothing spicy for me or I'll regret it later. Go on," he encouraged, determined to stay and work out some kind of agreement with his son and daughter-in-law that served everyone's interests and finally put the strain between them to bed.

"Thank you," Eddie smiled with relief since a good deal of the day's tension had been released. Now all she had to do was focus on getting Jamie better. "I checked a few minutes ago, and he was fine. Just don't forget to wake him at nine if I'm not back, and call me if you have any questions," she reiterated before grabbing her purse, intending to speed dial a double takeout order to Pho Thom that would be waiting for her to pick up after a brief grocery binge.

"You can count on me," Frank assured with a smile and another line from their so-called police vows as he moved over to a more comfortable seat on the couch before picking up one of Jamie's car magazines from the coffee table. He planned to pass the time quietly reading while being trusted with her precious charge before unintentionally closing his eyes after a few minutes alone and drifting into a fast, deep sleep of his own exhausted after the stress of the day and a few weeks of nightly worry over the couple's NYPD status.

It seemed like just a second later when he realized with a start that she was coming back through the door loaded down with groceries and her already half-eaten containers of food while apologizing for being so late after the restaurant screwed up her order and asking if Jamie was okay. Her panic was fully evident though as the bags fell to the ground after she caught her father-in-law's guilty expression when he realized how much time had passed with no one performing the required post-concussion check.

His heart in his throat, Frank anxiously followed Eddie into the bedroom as she frantically tried to wake her husband without success before flipping on the light.

The only reply they received was in the form of an open set of slightly cloudy, lifeless hazel eyes staring blankly back at them and he fell to his knees as he heard Eddie screaming Jamie's name in disbelief before doing the same.

The damage that had been done to the Reagan family that day was immense and might not ever be repaired.

* * *

 _Well, honestly, that was not my intent at all when I started this piece, but sometimes my brain just works like that and twists things around as the story develops. Maybe it's still stuck on the fact that a hired professional hitman missed his shot from six feet away when Jamie was sitting in his car under the bridge in the season 8 finale. So, is this the end of Jamko, or a chance for an unexpected new beginning? The answer might surprise you. Stay tuned for the final two chapters as we jump ahead a little in time to see how this turns out for the family, especially Frank and Eddie who might have a few more surprises of their own in store._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"So, Dad's still hiding out alone locked in the study like always, isn't he?"

"Danny," Erin sighed and tried to distract herself by cleaning and quartering the green beans for dinner and throwing them in the steamer since dealing with her contentious brother on top of everything else on this sad anniversary was just too much to ask.

"Please don't! It's been five years!" she begged.

"I'm just saying, between Grandma Betty, Mom, Joe, Linda, and…" he trailed off, unable to get his youngest brother's name out in that context after his throat tightened when first mentioning his departed wife. "Seems as if we have more days like this than candles on birthday cakes anymore," he reminded bitterly, having been unable to fully move on from her death either in the years since.

"Don't you think I know that?" his sister hissed back as she dropped her knife on the cutting board abruptly and stepped back to turn away from him, although he could hear her start to cry again as she leaned over the sink.

"I miss them all every single day, Danny," she admitted quietly. "But this one's probably the hardest for Dad because he…"

"Feels responsible?" her brother continued for her without showing the same mercy. "Maybe he should. If he hadn't harped on a goddamned rule about married cops and forced Jamie to be partnered up with that cowardly piece of…"

"STOP IT! It wasn't his fault! He didn't know about her!"

"Damn it, he should have! If nothing else, he could have made sure the kid stayed at the hospital with a head injury like that!"

"And it wouldn't have helped! The coroner said that it could have happened right in front of a surgeon and no one could have done anything about it! Dad's been punishing himself every day since! He resigned as Commissioner the second it happened, and if it hadn't been for…" she choked up before continuing that statement. "If it hadn't been for JJ, none of us would have gotten through this either, so for him today… for me, for Eddie, Dad, Grandpa and the kids, can we please just try to focus on telling some good stories that make us laugh? He's getting old enough to remember things now, and we hardly ever see them anymore."

"Well, what did you think would happen when she got remarried? She was a Reagan for like two seconds before Jamie died," Danny continued to grump despite his sister's request to tone it down.

"Four years," Erin corrected. "She kept his last name for four years, and even though it's Delman now, she still wants JJ to know his father and us… his real father. Paul is good to them though, and she deserves to be happy after everything they've been through. I know you don't like him, but maybe you could try being nicer because it wasn't his fault either. Jamie would have wanted her to move on and for his son to have a dad like that while he was growing up."

"If he had a choice, the kid would have wanted to do that himself!" Danny insisted with continued umbrage, and while it was true that he knew Paul Delman to be a competent cop and a decent man and husband for Eddie, despite this being the second marriage for both, he still held a deep resentment over the fact that a virtual stranger had come along and slipped himself into the life his little brother should have held as JJ's father and Eddie's partner in life, and for a time, on the job as well.

"They're here," Erin announced and tried to compose herself by wiping her eyes after she heard the bell for the front door, and loud greetings from Henry who had been anxiously waiting at the window for the chance to see his youngest great-grandson again—a sandy-haired little boy with familiar hazel eyes and an impish, lopsided grin that never failed to remind them of someone else loved and lost. It had been several weeks after the funeral before Eddie realized the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach she was waking up with every morning had more to do with Jamie's continued presence in her life than his loss, and eight months later they had all been blessed by the arrival of this little, bouncing mini-me named Jameson Henry, Jr., or JJ for short.

Without him, Eddie was pretty sure that neither she nor the rest of the Reagan family would have ever recovered, although to this day she still held a grudge in her heart against her former father-in-law for his perceived role in Jamie's death and the label "Dad" in her phone had been quickly replaced with a more sterile and formal "Frank Reagan" instead.

"Pop Pop!" the now four-year-old bounced into the familiar house and giggled as he ran over to give Henry a hug from where he was hiding behind the door in their usual game of hide-and-seek. "I see you! Me miss you lots!" JJ declared, dressed handsomely for this memorial dinner in a pair of khakis and a familiar-looking blue plaid button-down shirt over a white tee with his wavy hair brushed to the side.

"And I've missed you even more!" his great-grandfather smiled as he returned the affection before looking up and welcoming Eddie with the same warm embrace. "Both of you," he smiled at the pretty, blonde woman he would always consider family even if he understood why her visits had grown less frequent as she tried to move on with the rest of her life after a tragedy had taken away her soulmate mere months after they finally declared their love openly for one another.

"You look good, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Pop, you too," Eddie replied with tears in her eyes as she missed Henry terribly given the way he had supported her through a lonely pregnancy and the early years as a single mom, and while they still met for an occasional lunch or day trip out with the little boy, those dates were becoming fewer and farther between as he slowed down with age and she drifted into a new life with her son. She had promised herself that JJ would always be connected to his Reagan roots out of respect for Jamie, but visiting here, especially for Sunday dinners, had become harder over the last year. Once she remarried and took a new name, it felt like a betrayal on both sides and wrong to exclude Paul who tended to shy away from major family events like this even though it had always been made clear he was welcomed by everyone with perhaps the exception of Danny.

"Momma, don't cry 'gain!" JJ paused as his own eyes filled up and quickly ran over in little lines down his face when his attention was drawn back to his mother since even at this tender age he felt a strong, inborn urge to protect her from being unhappy. That being said, in fact, there had been many nights in his short life when he had been rocked to sleep in her arms amid the soft touch of tears falling from her cheeks.

"They're not sad ones, baby; I promise," Eddie tried to assure with a forced smile as she wiped them away even though it was wholly untrue and there wasn't another dry eye left in the room, anyway.

"Mommy's just happy to see everyone again."

"Then where Grandpa?" JJ looked up, realizing someone significant was missing after running to all the other family members and giving them hugs and high fives as the affectionate little boy was known to do on every occasion when he visited.

"I think he might be napping in the study; he probably didn't sleep well again last night," Erin answered after she picked her cherished nephew up for a big kiss and tight embrace, remembering all too well the many months after Jamie's death when Frank had punished himself in the same manner. Those decisions he made had snuffed out her brother's life in a heartbeat after he suffered an acute brain hemorrhage just hours after the incident and imprisoned another father for killing a police officer after likewise losing his own son.

As it turns out, that had been an awful day indeed, and one full of unanswered regrets.

"Why don't you go wake him up like a big boy and tell him dinner's almost ready?" she prodded, knowing a visit from his youngest grandson was desperately needed and would be the best tonic for Frank's broken heart today.

"'Kay!" JJ scrambled down intent on his assigned mission before skipping back to the room where his patriarch had indeed fallen asleep in a chair while reminiscing and paging through a few cherished photo albums that now lay open on the table beside an empty tumbler which had been drained more than once of a generous two fingers of single malt.

"GRANDPA! 'Ake up, p'ease! Auntie Erin says time for 'inner!" JJ's shrill voice attempted to cut through Frank's fog from the doorway even as his grandfather remained firmly entrenched in a recurring-themed dream he'd had several times over the past week—one in which the family had struggled to move on after losing Jamie because of a damn over-adherence to a rule in the patrol guide that didn't even exist. Without a doubt, given the indisputable video evidence of the way Eddie had managed to conduct herself during that call, if she had been partnered with her husband that day, someone competent would have had his back, and none of this would have ever happened. Jamie would still be alive, and Mr. Vargas would likely have never been allowed to commit such an offense.

If only an exception had been made…

"DAD! Wake up!"

Frank's eyes finally snapped open at that prompt from a familiar voice, and for a moment he remained between worlds, confused as to whether the vision before him was part of the dream or reality while he stared back at a bruised face he knew and loved so well. Ever since the accident, he had been plagued at least once daily by some variation of this nightmare in which he was forced to live through a terrible aspect of what might have been if this had turned out worse.

The first and most frightening had occurred that night in Jamie and Eddie's apartment when he had almost immediately fallen into an exhausted sleep after sitting on the couch and promising her he would watch over his son while she was out getting some food. Instead of returning to find that Jamie had been woken on schedule per doctor's orders, she discovered Frank in the living room mumbling and crying over his death, still in the throes of a horrible dream. Such was her fear of it being true that she hadn't even paused to rouse her father-in-law before dropping the groceries on the ground and flying back to the bedroom to check on her husband, calling out his name in a panic. Thankfully, in her version of events, Jamie's eyes had opened almost immediately and focused on her when she snapped on the lights, although he was left blinking in confusion behind his still-pounding headache as to what the problem was.

His father had downplayed the entire event once confronted after he had likewise wakened, claiming only to have a fleeting memory of what it was about, although in truth he still recalled every single terrible detail including that haunting blank stare from the son now looking back at him with some worry evident. The experience had left Frank shaken to the core, as had all the dreams to follow in subsequent days.

Usually, they were related to the events of the moment, and yesterday that meant reliving the memories of a funeral that seemed all too familiar as Joe and Jamie favored each other so closely the thought of losing them both to the job was one of his greatest fears.

Today's installment was about the family dinner, of course, but had also included a new addition in the heartbreaking specter of a fatherless grandchild who was the spitting image of his two sons and was being torn away from them as well. That was puzzling to Frank though as almost without fail his dreams were a jumble and juxtaposition of current characters and situations, and only very rarely contained surprises like that, although he reasoned this child was the same approximate age as the Vargas boy and was probably symbolic in that way.

It was no wonder why Henry had needed to restock the liquor cabinet this week.

"Erin said to tell you it's time for dinner," Jamie repeated, looking solid and whole, albeit slightly banged up while offering his own concern at his father's state as he stood there in the doorway, the side of his head now tinged in more muted greens and purples almost a week after the incident while his left arm remained in a tight, black immobilizing sling as his shoulder healed.

"Jamie, I… I didn't hear you come in," Frank stuttered with a sigh of immense relief since that request confirmed they were still in the present and the sadness of the nightmare quickly faded away as he sat up and closed the books on the table and pushed the empty glass to the side.

"A little early in the day to be that far down the neck of a new bottle," his son observed.

"You're right," Frank agreed, having been caught trying to numb his sorrows a little more often than usual this week. "I guess I got a head start after Pop and I came back from the funeral yesterday," he admitted as both Commissioners, Jamie, Eddie and what seemed like the entire neighborhood and most of the officers at the 12th had attended the services for little Alejandro Angel Vargas, Jr., when he had finally been escorted to the church in a hero's procession by a contingent of lit RMPs and laid to rest in the cemetery of the St. Aloysius parish.

"Need a hit before dinner?" he offered to share, knowing after that experience his son probably required one just as badly.

"Yeah, I do," Jamie agreed wholeheartedly for many of the same reasons. "But Eddie's still got me on a short leash… the damn concussion protocol," he explained with a henpecked look all husbands of strong women understood. "Eat light, no aspirin, no alcohol, no driving, no bright lights, no screens," he ticked off the requirements and continued to complain as she had refused to budge on anything until he was cleared even though he was beginning to feel better.

"The doc said I need cognitive rest until all the symptoms go away, so she takes my keys, wallet, phone, laptop… everything including the TV cable with her to work then sends Pop over to watchdog me. He does crosswords all day long, Dad, but doesn't even ask for help because I'm not supposed to think too hard! I'm seriously going nuts sitting on the couch with all the blinds drawn and staring at a blank wall! I talked her into coming here for dinner today even though she wasn't feeling that great either just to get out and snag some solid food," he sighed and tugged at his sling. "Someone else probably still has to cut it for me though, can't wait to get this thing off either."

"Well, that's a good woman for you," Frank smiled and finally stood up. "Gives me peace of mind to know you have someone like that in your life to look after you now," he conceded and wished once more that had been the case on the street that day nearly a week ago.

"Yeah, Ed's always been there for me that way," Jamie replied again although uncomfortable with the direction the statement led since there had been no indication from his father if that sentiment would carry over to the job once he was ready for duty again, and after recent events he wasn't prepared for another open confrontation about it.

"Listen, Dad, I know we have to talk, but…"

"There's time later when you're feeling better and this isn't all so raw," Frank promised as he wasn't quite ready to go there yet either given all of the emotions that had been stirred up, but once the gate was opened, it was hard to turn back.

"Not so sure when _that_ will be," Jamie sighed in return as despite the doctor's orders, without any other distractions he had done nothing but think long and hard about the accident and the vision of the child being injured that way in front of him continued to trouble his conscience in spite of the fact he knew there was nothing else he could have done.

"I keep wishing the whole thing never happened; he was just an innocent little kid. That car and what it did to him… that's all I see whenever I shut my eyes. Now that I remember, I can't forget; you know?"

"I do," Frank admitted sadly to having the same helpless thoughts himself after watching the video of his own son being hurt numerous times. Calls like that involving children were the worst of the worst and this one ranked right at the top of that scale in addition to involving an officer, so he had promised himself to keep close tabs on Jamie's mental as well as physical recovery even though there were clear signs Eddie had already tasked herself with that job.

"I was glad to see you were able to make it to the service yesterday for a few minutes though; it seemed to mean a lot to you and the Vargas family," he continued and recalled the lump in his throat he felt while standing inconspicuously in the back of the church with Henry and watching Alejandro's emotional parents embrace his son and daughter-in-law when they arrived to pay their respects near the end of a long line of mourners.

"Yeah, I was afraid us being there would upset them, but Ed thought we needed to go."

"She was right. Having that sort of closure might help."

"They're good people," Jamie acknowledged with a sigh and no resentment held for his own injuries. "It was just a bad situation, and he has enough guilt for what happened. I couldn't imagine…" he trailed off given the father's grief over his role in the accident that claimed his son. "One of the older kids was supposed to watch, then he was distracted by a phone call and Mr. Vargas already blames himself enough for that. When everyone yelled, and he saw what was happening, I guess he just panicked and went into flight or fight mode. He thought I hurt the boy, so… I just wanted him to know I was okay and understood why he reacted like that. He thanked Eddie for everything she did for him too, but it's never going to be over for them, is it?"

"No, they'll have a long road from now on; I only hope they can find a way to make it through together," Frank shook his head and spoke from experience, though wishing that he might find a way to receive the same forgiveness for his actions which were eerily similar as he had taken his eye off what was important and nearly paid the ultimate price again. "A lot of marriages break up after something like that; she'll blame him even if that's not her intention, and he'll carry the guilt of losing their child. I know if your mother had been alive for Joe," he paused with regret at the thought since Mary Margaret had never been comfortable with her sons entering the family business and had finally put her foot down over her youngest because of that fear. "It would have been the same for me."

"Maybe it still is, Dad," Jamie offered knowingly with just a subtle little barb attached to his voice, aware that his mother's feelings about him being an officer had clouded Frank's opinion from an early age when it had been evident that's exactly what he was born to be just like his older brothers. "And maybe Mr. Vargas will have another chance to do better if she gives it to him," he added more softly and subtly opened the door with that sense of absolution his father was longing for.

"Let's hope so," Frank nodded and acknowledged the invitation with an enormous sense of relief and determination. "I know he'll try."

"That's all anyone can ask," Jamie replied just as Danny's voice bellowed out of the dining room reminded them that dinner was on the table.

"Well, we shouldn't keep everyone else waiting; you know how your brother is," Frank reminded after approaching and clapping his youngest on the shoulder in a makeshift hug before the two made their way to the dining room together.

* * *

 _This chapter got a bit long and emotional with Frank's dream (sniff, right? Thankfully that's all it was!), so I decided to split it here and post the conclusion to this story appropriately in the form of a favorite Reagan family Sunday dinner discussion. Still, one possible major spoiler to come at the end of this one as Frank might just find a way to turn the tables on Jamie and Eddie's plans to remain together as partners again._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Finally," Danny sighed when Jamie and Frank walked in the dining room as his patience, what little there was of it, had been tested far too often by his younger brother's tardiness to the table as of late although after a rough summer it was good to see that all the chairs remained filled and an addition had been made for Eddie. Still, he was starving and in no mood for such reflection or the usual debate over who would lead the prayer so he took charge once more and rattled through the familiar text at warp speed.

"Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen."

"Boy, Dad must be hungry again," Sean noted with a laugh even as he allowed himself a little offhanded peek at Jamie's impressive array of bruises which Eddie spotted and felt she should address.

"Don't worry; he'll be okay," she tried to assure, assuming his uncle's appearance probably scared the teenager while underestimating what the youngest Reagans had already been exposed to, especially given their own father's history. "It looks worse than it is."

"Oh, it's not half as bad as before," Jack snickered and blew her concern right out the window as they began to pass the food and he remembered back to when Jamie had taken a more colorful beating after being nearly caught smuggling out a USB drive while working undercover.

"He had two black eyes and a cool looking broken nose the last time, plus he had to swallow something icky to make himself throw up just so they could get the evidence back."

"There were two guys on me back then, and I didn't have to do that this time," Jamie managed to wink back at his confused wife who turned a shade greener herself between that reference and the fact he had just handed her the meat platter before adding a "we'll talk about it later."

"Yeah, later," Eddie agreed as she barely managed to suppress an immediate gag reflex and quickly moved the serving tray past without taking any of the roast.

"You okay?" Jamie noted with concern as she had been acting a little off for the past few days, and he could not recall another time when she had been repulsed by food—even an offer to call out for her go-to Thai favorites had been rejected the night before.

"Wait, you're not Edit Marie, so what have you done with my wife?" he quipped.

"I guess I just picked up a stomach bug at the hospital, or I don't know, listening to you yack and complain about the smell of everything I tried to eat until yesterday must have rubbed off on me," she reasoned with a frown given his continued nausea from the concussion which had persisted for a few days and now seemed to be shared.

"I'll just stick with bread today," she added and instead grabbed a roll out of the basket to move things forward while Frank tilted his head and raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he took a closer look at his new daughter-in-law given that dream he'd had before the conversation continued.

"So, what will happen to Mr. Vargas?" Nicky prodded with an inquiring look as she was aware from the reports that her mother's office had taken over the case, and as the newly promoted DA, that decision would fall squarely in Erin's lap. "They said on the news yesterday that he was released, but he's still facing charges. After what happened, you aren't really going to put him in jail, are you Mom?"

"Well, what he did was very serious no matter the circumstances," Erin explained as she buttered a roll. "Pulling Jamie away from his son and arguably accidentally hitting his head is one thing, but then he kicked him too which showed clear intent. Assault in the second degree on a peace officer and causing serious bodily injury is a class C violent felony with a mandated sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Because of that, if he's convicted the judge is required to impose a minimum term of three-and-a-half years even if he has no prior convictions."

"But that's a long time! He only acted that way because his kid was hurt!" Nicky argued.

"Isn't there some kind of defense for that?" Jack asked.

"There's a 'heat of passion' argument that could bring it down to a lesser charge, but that's usually reserved for homicides when someone kills their spouse's lover when they're caught in the act per se," Erin added. "Besides, in this case, it won't be necessary, and no, Mr. Vargas won't see any jail time."

"So why is that?" Danny asked, and while he had sympathy for the man's plight as a parent himself, and a hotheaded one at that, he tended to have a less merciful look on situations like this that involved injuries to his fellow brothers in blue, or a sibling in this very house, as it were.

"For second-degree assault, you have to prove serious injury. Because Jamie signed himself out of the hospital so quickly, even against medical advice, that would make it more difficult to prosecute. Any half-way decent defense attorney would have gotten him off before the judge called for lunch, so the charge got dropped down right away to a misdemeanor with probation since no one in my office had the appetite to take the case on anyway," she turned and eyed her younger brother purposefully. "And the fact that his wife is four months pregnant with their second child certainly didn't hurt the sympathy vote."

"Three," Jamie corrected automatically and then realized that he had been caught in a deliberate trap.

"HA! I KNEW IT! Well, that was a pretty big gamble you took, buster!" Erin accused with a worried huff, knowing full well he had been aware of all those legal details and decided to take the risk anyway.

"If something had happened to you because of it, he could have faced a murder charge instead and gone away for life!" she scolded.

"He lost his son; he's already going to pay for this the rest of his life, and I thought it was worth the chance to keep a family together," Jamie acknowledged although he knew that was going to draw Eddie's ire and braced himself.

"WHAT?" she caught on then and poked him in his sore ribs herself when she realized the possible danger he had exposed himself to for perfect strangers. "You knew? How? Because of what the sister was yelling, right? She was talking so fast I couldn't really follow what she was saying, but that's why you decided to leave right away even though you couldn't see straight, isn't it? Jameson Reagan! I've been worried sick… _literally sick_ … about you all week! We're married! You don't get to make those decisions on your own anymore!"

"OW! Hey, alright! I get it! I'm sorry! You must be upset if you're not even eating," Jamie sheepishly conceded as he couldn't argue that point seeing what it had done to his new wife.

For Eddie to go off her food was almost unheard of and meant this was indeed serious.

"I promise never to do that again," he swore.

"So, I still don't understand why that guy did it if he knew he'd get in so much trouble, anyway," Sean puzzled, having recently found himself in his own fair share of teenaged-fueled situations where such consequences needed to be weighed on the fly especially without his mother's guidance and buffer. Under the stress of single parenthood, Danny had become far less tolerant of the boys' behavior then he had once been and a call from the school was to be avoided at all costs.

"When something bad happens to someone you love, in the heat of the moment you can make the wrong choices and act without thinking," Henry professed as he too had once been opposed to the notion of Jamie and Eddie continuing to ride together due to that fact.

"Is that why you and Grandpa are against married partners?" Jack interjected, knowing it had been an off and on topic at the table over the past several months ever since that big dinner when the engagement reveal was made.

"That's part of it," Frank agreed as it seemed the subject would need to be addressed once more. "Plus, the fact that personal issues can cause a distraction, and someone could get hurt," he continued. "But there's more to consider… a cop swears an oath to protect and put the lives of the public before their own or even their partner's. When that person riding next to you happens to be your spouse or someone you love…" he trailed off and looked at the new couple who had weathered such a rough week because they were separated.

"When you only have a split-second to make a decision, that's an almost impossible thing to expect of anyone."

"But Eddie did," Jamie argued back as he looked up and reached over to squeeze her hand in support. "She took care of Vargas and his son first even though she didn't know how bad I was hurt."

"Yes," Frank agreed with a nod and a tight, but proud smile for the newest Reagan who had honored their name so well already, and if his tingling spidey-sense intuition was correct, might just deliver another special gift soon. "She handled herself like an exceptional professional, and Sergeant Mathers and Lieutenant Graver both put her up for a commendation. Between that, the shooting in the stairwell, finding that missing baby and the shot that took out Sorrento, she's going to have more bars on her chest after the next ceremony than both you two boys put together," he added seriously even as Eddie beamed back with that praise.

"Well I think it's stupid to set rules like that," Nicky contended as she had always been a little more free-spirited than anyone else in the family. "Shouldn't they take into consideration the situation to be fair? Like if Uncle Jamie hadn't known how to help by leaving the hospital, then Mr. Vargas might have gone to prison for years over the same act because the judge wouldn't have had a choice but to send him there, and if Eddie and Jamie can work together like they're supposed to, then I think they should be allowed… just my two cents," she added after voicing such a dissenting opinion as everyone looked at Frank for a reply since he was known to cherish his strict guidelines.

"They're there for a reason," he defended as expected.

 _"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions_ … Oliver Wendell Holmes," Nicky used her recently gained college degree to return cheekily, garnering a series of oohs, aahs and raised eyebrows from everyone at the table as she took on her formidable grandfather at his own game.

"Touché," Frank mumbled under his breath.

"But if it's a rule that cops have to help," Sean joined in again as he went back to the original premise. "Then how come the one with Uncle Jamie didn't? You said they had to swear to. I heard Dad say she just sat in the car and then tried to blame everything on him."

"Because she was an exception too," Henry gruffed and spoke up, having no patience for any mere mention of Dana McIntyre at this table. "Most officers would never dream of doing something like that, but she was never true blue," he asserted. "Her father was just set on pushing her through the ranks when he must have known she should have never been anywhere near a badge."

"And so did all her supervisors, but they allowed it because of him," Frank noted with irritation as that particular aspect galled him. "That's on me. Bill McIntyre was a good cop back in his day, but he has a blind spot when it comes to his daughter. Believe me, everyone that covered anything up to get her through the academy or her probationary period will be facing disciplinary action. Gormley's already looking into it, and her case has been turned over to the Advocate's office. She'll be fired with cause."

"Maybe that's why it's so important to have one of us on the shop floor making the barstools," Jamie muttered under his breath while only his father caught that reference to his son's professed reluctance to leave the street. "Someone should have noticed she never wanted to be a cop in the first place."

"Huh?" Danny snipped at the seemingly unrelated allusion.

"Never mind that; what about the Chief? Didn't he put up a stink?" Henry asked, not wishing to curtail the conversation and lose this chance to hear what happened to the elder McIntyre since he figured his son would not stand for someone in charge with the bad judgment to put other officers in jeopardy that way.

"Resigned to save his reputation. When he started to huff about her termination, I told him the rest of that video would be released to his peers, and it wouldn't just be his daughter looking at losing face with the department for the hooks he pulled. Not backing up your partner would never be forgiven or forgotten," he declared once again.

"Well, that's one thing we wouldn't have to worry about if the rules didn't change," Danny asserted as he looked at his father directly and decided to challenge him, knowing that Jamie had not done so yet.

"So, since everything else is taken care of, what's gonna happen with these two when he's ready to come back?" he nodded toward his brother and Eddie.

"Yeah, inquiring minds want to know," Erin added as she likewise stared purposefully at Frank.

"Do we really have to talk about this now? It's not like I won't be out or on modified for at least a month or more, anyway," Jamie groaned as this back and forth conversation was becoming tiring for his still recovering brain to follow and did not feel like pressing this subject at the moment. Given the way his wife looked, neither did she, and they had agreed privately before arriving today to table the discussion until they were both feeling better.

"We get that it's complicated and he's just trying to protect us and the rest of the department," Eddie added as she was having the same thoughts.

"Yes, he is, but I know from experience how hard it is to lock up personal feelings for your partner when you're on the job. I got a little too close to Colleen that time and couldn't handle it so had to request a change, even though there never was or could be anything between us. It still affected us on the street, not to mention my relationship with Betty, but these two seem like they've figured it out," Henry reasoned as he gave the new couple props and turned the corner on his own thinking about their working partnership.

"That should count for something, Francis."

"Well, since you asked, as of tomorrow, Legal will begin working on adding a new rule to the patrol guide: married couples will not be allowed to work out of the same precinct or remain partners," Frank decided to reveal abruptly, anyway, as he had thought long and hard about this over the past few months and intuitively knew it was the correct decision, although the circumstances of the Vargas incident had weighed on him heavily and Nicky's argument also made an impact, so he decided to include a modification.

"But," he added after watching his son and daughter-in-law deflate. "Exceptions may be made for officers who meet and maintain certain high-standard performance requirements under the supervision of their commanding officer and with written approval from the Chief of Department. That way it's out of my hands. It's not perfect, but sometimes a rule has to consider the situation to be fair," he nodded and deferred to his granddaughter.

"Wow, did I just win an argument with Grandpa?" Nicky basked in her unexpected success.

"Yay for me!" she gloated.

"Yay for us!" Eddie smiled at her husband since the opportunity to continue to prove themselves together was all they had ever wanted or asked for.

"Not so fast," Frank brought them back to earth knowingly with a smug grin before looking down and carefully straightening out his placemat as he searched for the right approach to reveal his suspicion.

"Maybe by the time Jamie is cleared for duty again you two might feel differently about being together on the street," he added enigmatically.

"What? Why?" his youngest son asked, frustrated once more and confused as to how his father could even suggest such a thing after giving them the green light.

"There's no reason we would ever change our minds!"

"Oh, I can think of one, maybe," Frank hedged as his detective's brain sought to test his theory.

"Why don't you try passing Eddie the roast again?"

"Huh?" Jamie was totally confused at that request but did as he was asked after a moment's hesitation.

"Jameson Reagan, I told you to get that thing away from me!" Eddie demanded after suffering an instant and obvious physical repulsion to the sight and smell of the well-prepared and usually favorite main course.

"Has that ever happened before?" Frank asked as his mustache twitched up and eyes twinkled while remembering exactly what had caused Mary to suffer through periods of a similar and predictable reaction on several occasions—four to be precise—many years before.

"No, never... at least not until the last day or so. I mean she probably just overdid it on all that hot Thai food she was inhaling for the last week," Jamie answered, still perplexed and sluggishly not catching on to what his father was up to, although Eddie's eyes soon grew big and wide as she realized where this was leading. The fact that there might indeed be something else behind the way she was feeling had not occurred to her before, but suddenly it became clear given that a critical and normally timely thing had been apparently skipped without notice under the stress of the previous week.

"How did you know?" she gasped at her father-in-law while everyone else remained in the dark.

"I'm the Commissioner, I know everything," Frank smiled as he sat back, quite sure in his own mind of what of what was to come.

* * *

 _Okay, I know, never in our wildest Jamko dreams would there be a little bouncing blue blood on the way already, but hey, the engagement finale was a shock too! Eddie seemed to have the baby bug recently in a few epis, so I went with that and left it open as a possibility here on FF since little JJ appeared to Frank as I was writing that previous scene, anyway._

 _Honestly, I was going to end things there, but what fun would it be to miss out on our favorite couple's angst as they wait to see if Frank's prediction is true or not? So, a short epilogue will follow to wrap things up for this story as the lovebirds contemplate what either answer might mean to their marriage and partnership going forward._


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Jesus, Eddie! C'mon, already! You've been in there forever! Open up!" an impatient Jameson Reagan rattled the locked bathroom doorknob before continuing to pace barefoot outside in the hallway early the next morning, dressed only in a pair of sweatpants and an old, maroon washed-out Harvard tee for comfort. He'd been kept in this state of angst ever since his father's shocking observation at yesterday's Sunday dinner which had immediately halted all conversation, necessitated a stop at a 24/7 drugstore on the way home and was now producing a level of stress he had never experienced before. A rushed engagement and subsequent wedding with an eye towards staying together on the job as partners notwithstanding, there was no question in his heart that Eddie was his soulmate and it could be argued that the two had practically lived as a couple without benefits for the last several years, but parenthood was a whole other stratospheric level of commitment. While it was something they had both previously agreed was mutually desired at some point, it was for damn sure not supposed to be on the radar just yet in the middle of all the recent upheaval their lives had undergone.

"How long can this possibly take?" he whined.

"Jamie, shush! Walk away! I can't pee with you out there listening!"

"Since when have you been shy about anything?" he continued to harangue instead as he turned around, leaned his back up against the door in frustration and unsuccessfully tried to contain himself in silence long enough for her to do the deed even while he considered their recent active sex life which had been both satisfying and anything but timid or quiet after years of denying themselves.

"Maybe if you had been, we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Oh, right… it was me. I always thought it took two to tango, Reagan… and besides, _Boy Scout,_ weren't you the one in charge of always being prepared? Maybe you should try not being so naked and um, standing at attention every single time we get into bed!"

"Yeah, okay, I know," he admitted guiltily knowing he was likely the one at fault for any type of preventative failure or malfunction. "But it's so damn _hard_ not to be… you know… _that_ … when you're so unbelievably gorgeous."

"Ha, and you think flattery will get you everywhere, lambchop… Remember that, especially when it looks like I swallowed a beach ball in a few months."

"Oh, uh… yeah, I'll try," he stuttered and paused at that vision while considering all it would entail to get that far before deciding that would make her even more attractive to him if it were possible. To know she was possibly carrying his child within her had already brought forth a rush of intense emotions that ranged the gamut from abject, knock-kneed shaking anxiety to euphoria and unbelievable pride and love at the thought of being a father.

"Do you really think you are? I mean have you ever been late like this before?"

"Never. I told you that ten times already!"

"But every website I Googled said not to freak out," he pressed, having successfully wrestled his laptop out of her hands for the first time the previous evening since being assigned to that damn concussion protocol as a desperate web search was obviously in order. "There was a whole list of reasons other than just being pregnant for a missed period… like stress… that was at the top of every page and we've sure as hell been through that lately."

"Well, maybe Google doesn't have a body that runs like a swiss army watch! When I say _never,_ I mean it, Reagan… every fourth Thursday for fifteen years like clockwork," she reminded.

"Then I don't understand why we couldn't just do this when we got home last night if you're already sure?" he moaned as the suspense of waiting an additional twelve hours had been almost unbearable for him and apparently the rest of the Reagan family considering the barrage of prying texts that had already appeared on his phone, and here she was extending it for even longer.

"Because the directions say it has to be done first thing in the morning or it might not work right! I know you! No matter what it said then, you would have questioned if it was accurate and we would have been up all night wondering before I had to run out for another test, anyway! This was easier!"

"You could have bought two right away," he tried to rationalize. "Ed, please? Try running the water in the sink, maybe that will help," he offered impatiently before adding another louder plea after she took the advice in an extended attempt to drown his voice out.

"Are you done yet?"

"Yes," she abruptly opened the door as he lost his balance and stumbled in backward.

"So?" he looked wildly at her for some kind of confirmation that their lives were going to be turned upside down in a way neither had anticipated just a few short hours before.

"So? SO, WHAT? It takes like another three minutes, genius! Didn't you read the box?" she demanded before moving past him to go sit down on the bed and wait with her short, satin housecoat pulled shut and arms nervously wrapped around the knees drawn up to her chest to hide her face.

"Oh, God, Jamie… I can't look."

"Three minutes," he repeated with another glance at that little pink and white stick sitting on the edge of the counter that held the secret to their immediate future.

"Yeah, three minutes for us to decide exactly how we're gonna deal with this!"

"Decide? Oh, Eddie…" Jamie softened and trailed off as he turned and joined her on the bed while putting his good arm around her as she started to cry into his shoulder. "Honey don't be upset. We talked about this last night… no matter what, it's going to be okay."

 _"Is it?_ Look at the way you're acting!" she pointed out while likewise stressed. "I don't even know what to hope for, or if I'm ready to do this! We just got married _three_ weeks ago; we didn't date before we got engaged, and how weird is it that your _Dad…_ my _boss…_ figured it out before I did and announced it to the whole family? I feel so stupid! Maybe I don't have a clue about anything! How am I supposed to take care of a baby if my father-in-law has to point out the fact that I'm pregnant in the first place?"

"Allegedly pregnant," Jamie quipped as he could not help but use that typical legalese before conceding to her state. "Ed, it's not like you haven't had a lot of stress and distractions the last couple of months… the Sorrento shooting, getting engaged and married, taking the sergeant's test… everything that happened to me last week… all of that could have knocked you out of whack, right? Dad's been through it before with my mom, so he knew what to look for is all, and none of that has anything to do with what kind of a mother you might be… will be," he corrected. "Because I know for a fact you'll be a pretty terrific one."

"So, now you really want this?" she sniffed and looked up in his eyes, searching for some kind of assurance that he was willing to face everything with her before doing a complete one-eighty and turning the tables on her worries again.

"Then what if it's not?" she wailed. "Will you be disappointed?"

"No… yes… maybe a little? I mean honestly, no matter what that test says, it's a win-win," he initially waffled before settling on that approach and sealing it with a kiss on her forehead before she demanded he explain his reasoning. "Try thinking of it like that."

"How can it possibly be both?"

"Well, if you look at it this way: you've already taken the exam, and I know you nailed it. That list is supposed to come out next week, and it'll probably be active for the next three or four years, so I'm either going to keep the ride with you for a little longer until you get promoted to a kick-ass sergeant and then become an awesome mom sometime afterward, or we're going to have a baby now, and you'll get to do that first before you wear your stripes. There's time for both, honey… I promise."

"You can't be sure of any of that," she admitted quietly and deflated as her own self-doubts resurfaced. "The only thing it means is if it's positive we won't be partners at all anymore," she whispered and lamented the sudden end to that aspect of their relationship. Even though they both knew that recent moves would make that eventuality arrive sooner than later, it had been easier to push things off, and even fight the unwritten rules of the NYPD and the mighty Commissioner Frank Reagan rather than face the truth squarely.

"No, we wouldn't, not like that," he agreed. "Being married and riding together I could handle because we've both had those feelings for years and were able to work around them; I knew we could still stay safe that way, but a baby… Eddie, if you are pregnant, I'm afraid… no, I _know_ I would go off like Mr. Vargas if I saw anyone threaten you. Maybe it's some kind of hardwired caveman thing, and I don't mean it like I'd see you as any less capable of being a good cop, but I have to be honest… we promised each other to say something if we ever felt that way."

"Yeah, I know that too," she confessed, and as much as it hurt to think about their time together on the job coming to an end, it also felt comforting and safe to have his arm around her now and to know that he would always be her protector as long as they were together. After not having anyone in her corner like that for years and being forced to fight her own battles since her father had betrayed their family and was sent to prison, it was a new and welcome feeling of security that suddenly eased the indecision in her heart as they worked through this situation.

"And I think if I am it might make me hesitate too much… I couldn't ride with you, or anyone else, like that."

"After a few months they'd put you on modified anyway," he added. "Either way, if you're not pregnant and get promoted, we weren't going to have much time left, so as long as we're both together here, then everything we've always wanted will eventually come true… and the order doesn't really matter, right? That's why I said it was a win-win."

"I don't know if I'm ready to give that up yet though. Seeing what happened to you last week when you rode with that stupid green rookie… that really scared me, Jamie."

"It scared me too, so going forward I'm for damn sure going to listen to my gut right away and not assume I'm riding with anyone I can trust like you. I let my guard down, Eddie, and that was my fault but seeing how you handled yourself that day made me realize I can't hold you back anymore just because I want to stay on patrol, and for a while," he paused before adding honestly. "For a little while, it seemed like Dad was right about that rule of his especially when I thought I was responsible for hitting the boy. Maybe this is just another sign, Ed, but for the first time since we met, I was glad it wasn't you in the car with me because I didn't want you to be held responsible for my mistake."

"But you didn't make one!" Eddie insisted. "And I would have known that! None of that would have happened because you would have had a partner that actually had your back!"

"We'll always be partners," he determined. "I know before that staying on the job together seemed like the most important thing, but now that we're married, and I get to come home to you every night… it feels like we're so much more than that, Eddie. You're my whole life now, and nothing will ever change the way I feel about you."

"Even if I look like I've swallowed a beach ball?" she repeated anxiously, stuck on that potential imagery and sighed with an unsteady resolve as a glance at her watch confirmed that dreaded three minutes was just about up although at least they had managed to map out a strategy to deal with either eventuality that test result might bring.

"Especially then, Mrs. Reagan," Jamie smiled just as the timer went off and they both simultaneously took a deep breath and looked into the bathroom where their immediate destiny was already predetermined and sitting on the corner of the counter waiting for them.

"No retreat, no surrender, right?" Eddie tried to steel herself as they stood up, holding hands with a mutually tight grip and walked over to see what it revealed.

"You can always count on me," Jamie smiled and pulled her in tight for a kiss after a glance down provided the answer they were waiting for.

-fin-

* * *

 _So, maybe she is…or not? Bahahaha! You decide!_

 _I'm honestly conflicted myself as to whether they should stay together as partners, but they almost have to in order to make the show's format work, so hopefully, we don't get the rug pulled out from under us before there is a wedding or a happily ever after. Now the season 9 opener is closer, and I've finally got this story out of my system, I'm off to finish the rest of my "werks" and anything new that pops up in the meantime. Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed, that's what keeps the muse happy! Back with more soon!_


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